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500 year-old human remains are discovered in Bawtry
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have descended on a Bawtry building site – after human remains were found by surprised workmen.
Last Wednesday police cordened off the site believing it could be a crime scene, but visiting history experts confirmed the bones were 500 years old.
It is thought the skull and bones belong to a small adult or child, but the gender has not yet been determined.
Work on the Bett Homes development has been temporarily halted while a team of archaeologists dig for clues that could reveal more about Medieval Bawtry.
Dinah Saich, South Yorkshire Archaeology Services's principal archaeologist, said there could be much more to find.
"Finding the remains is not a huge surprise to us because the building site is on top of an old chapel – this is a traditional burial and there is the possibility that more remains could be found," she said.
"Although we don't expect to find any artefacts because people in those times were usually buried alone without any possessions."
The mini excavation is expected to last two weeks, but it is not yet known what will happen to the remains or any more found during the dig.
"It depends on what we find. Sometimes they are taken away to be studied, left where they are or are taken to be buried somewhere else," said Mrs Saich.
"We have been very pleased with the response from locals and we have had quite a lot of interest – it's good when these events get people thinking about local history."
"Bawtry is a Medieval town, the parish church dates back from that period, as do all the road structures, so history is really all around the area."
At the time the remains were buried, Bawtry was a thriving port known as the Gateway to the North, thanks to the River Idle.
Several Roman military camps were situated close to the town because it lay across the route from Lincoln to York. The legions would have forded the Idle close to where the stone bridge on Gainsborough Road now stands.
However, its great port tradition was ended with the introductions of railways, and this was compounded when the river dried up.
For an update on any more historic finds in Bawtry, see next week's Worksop Guardian.
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Weather for Worksop
Sunday 27 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 25 C
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