Thousands set to be exhumed in burial ground dig

GIANT TENTS have gone up over a graveyard more than two centuries old in Hull, where thousands of burials are set to be exhumed as part of a major road upgrade.

There are 25 archaeologists working on the Trinity burial ground site just off the A63, which will increase in the coming months to a team of 85.

Oxford Archaeology North, which is carrying out the dig, said on social media that it was “set to be one of the largest excavations of a post- Medieval burial ground in Northern England”.

An ecclesiastical court ruling in 2018 suggested “that somewhere approaching 19,000 interments will be disturbed”.

Around 1,500 skeletons would be set aside for detailed examination, according to the judgement, with all the remains eventually being reburied on the site.

The 22ft high tents, which are unmissable at 37,800 sq ft and 1,354 sq ft, are likely to be there for around 12 months.

Highways England assistant project manager Frances Oliver said the “delicate” work was being done with “the upmost care”.

He added: “The tents provide a private setting in which the team of experienced archaeologists can oversee this meticulous process in a sensitive way.”

The Castle Street scheme, which got under way in June, involves a new junction being created by lowering the level of the A63 at the Mytongate junction.

One objector contested the scheme in 2018 as she did not want to see the remains of her four- times great- grandparents disturbed.

However the then vicar and Parochial Church Council highlighted the “desperate need for a major upgrade to this extremely busy and congested piece of road” and permission was given.

The graveyard, part of which will be dug up, served Holy Trinity Church, now known as Hull Minster, from 1783 to 1861, when its own cemetery directly outside the church ran out of space.

It includes mass burials, following outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and smallpox.

The archaeologists are also due to excavate what remains of the Gaol, which was to the north- east of the burial ground.