Wartime discovery made by workers at Castle Street upgrade
HULL’S HISTORY BEING REVEALED AS WORKERS CLEAR PARTS OF THE FORMER TRINITY BURIAL GROUND
THE remains of a Second World
War bomb crater have been revealed in the city centre.
The blast site emerged during work in the former Trinity burial ground next to the A63.
Part of the historic burial ground is being cleared ahead of construction work starting on the long-awaited £355m Castle Street improvement scheme.
As well as the remains of the crater, the foundations of an early
20th century warehouse associated with the nearby Railway Dock were also uncovered.
The warehouse was destroyed during a bombing raid at the height of the Hull Blitz in 1941.
Archaeologists working there also expect to chart the exact position of a former jail, which once stood next to the burial ground.
Burials took place there from 1783 to about 1860.
Records for the period suggest many of the 44,000 burials documented in the parish during the period were carried out there.
Nothing remains of the late 18th century jail above ground except for a wall, which separated it from the burial ground.
The wall is being recorded in detail before being dismantled as part of the clearance work at the eastern end of the site.
A new report for the Joint Humber Archaeology Board says weekly monitoring of on-going work there will start once construction on the road improvement scheme is underway.
Initial archaeological investigations carried out at the site five years ago uncovered 191 burial plots, but no human remains were exhumed.
Instead, a series of bone samples were taken to examine historic health and disease issues being encountered by Hull residents more than 200 years ago.
A large number of exhumations are planned at the site over the coming months although only part of the burial ground will eventually disappear as part of the proposed new-look junction at Mytongate.
Remains will be re-buried at the site where possible but some could be transferred to the crypt at Hull Minster if necessary.
The current Mytongate roundabout will eventually be replaced by grade separated junction with a new road connecting Ferensway and Commercial Road running over a lowered section of the main east-west A63 dual carriargeway.
The A63 scheme is one of two new major projects being overseen by the Humber Archaeology Partnership which holds detailed records for excavation sites and monuments across the region.
The other involves the excavation of a cable trench between Ulrome on the Holderness coast and Beverley for the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm project.
So far, prehistoric and Roman remains have been found at five sites along the route although details of the finds have yet to be released.