Archaeology Lecture No.5 | Recent and not so recent research at St Nicholas cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne

Recent and not so recent research at St Nicholas cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne

The most important religious building in Newcastle has been the subject of antiquarian research since the mid seventeenth century, and over the past three centuries, antiquarians and archaeologist have given us a detailed description of the evolution of the building. Excavation in advance of the renovation of the nave as part of the Common Ground in Sacred Space Heritage Lottery Fund project has added to our understanding of the way the church was used by the townsfolk and their secular and religious leaders.

The removal of the Victorian floor of the nave revealed 79 new ledger stones, the large floor slabs used to mark the burials of the town’s richer inhabitants, which were the subject of detailed archaeological recording by laser scanning and photogrammetry.

The lifting of the floor also revealed detail of the post-Medieval layout of the nave and crossing, and showed how it was used both for burial and worship, according to the practises fashionable in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Within the churchyard, extensive re-landscaping triggered the excavation of a number of burials and the discovery of 56 new grave stones, laid face down as paving when the East End churchyard was paved in the 1930s. Interesting discoveries were made in the basement of the hall and the South churchyard.