This year, apart from a fantastic meal out (still can hardly move!) they took us to the town of Hythe. It is one of the Cinque Ports, towns which were given charters in the 12th century to take care of the naval needs of the monarch. They took us to St Leonard's Church. Like so many early churches it has been changed and added to over the centuries. It started as a Saxon church (ie. pre-Norman invasion of 1066). Some of the old rounded arches are still visible, but pointed arches are much more in evidence.
A raised path with a very low parapet wall takes you from the church entrance to the crypt, which has been used as an ossuary for hundreds of years. The vies from the path across the town to the English Channel is stunning.
There are 2000 skulls in the crypt. No-one knows why there are so few, given that there are 8000 thigh bones! The first bones were moved here in medieval times from the churchyard to make way for additional burials.
This huge stack of bones is higher than I am and very carefully arranged and closely packed.
There are skulls interspersed among the long bones at regular intervals.
This skull has clear signs of a trepanning. The person obviously survived having a hole drilled in their skull, because the healing of the bone shows that they lived on for some considerable time.
5 comments:
The sight of all those bones sure is creepy.
Do they say who the people are? Did they all die around the same time (like from the plague)? What a beautiful cathedral though.
European churches are so beautiful--I hope I can get over there someday. The bones are kind of creepy though, but fascinating at the same time.
There are lots of stories attached, JoJo, like they are the dead from various battles, but there's no evidence or documentation to nail anything down. They do not all date from the same period, but over a period of hundreds of years.
The church is not very big, certainly nowhere near cathedral size. It is very high up on a huge, steep hill and the graveyard is behind it and up an even higher, steeper hill. Wouldn't like to have been the horses who had to drag the coffins up there!
Very fascinating, Val! Especially for those of from across the pond . . . great pictures!
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