A mortal blow to the back – a medieval skeleton
Watching TV the other day, I came across the “Bone Detectives”. It’s a program on Channel 4 here in the UK. The premise is “a team of scientists piece together the lives behind unearthed bones to find out their stories. Once a skeleton has been recorded, the bones immediately begin to reveal their mysteries, opening up a secret history of Britain.”
The series so far has been interesting (it’s well worth a watch) but this episode even more so as they were examining some skeletons found during excavations at Norton Priory. This is the remains of an abbey complex dating from the 12th to 16th centuries, which is only some twenty-five miles from where I sit typing this in northwest England. Now this part of the northwest is fairly industrial, where I live most of the towns really grew to prominence only in the Victorian period. The northwest went from being somewhat of a backwater in previous centuries to the heart of the industrial revolution. Heavy industry and medieval remains rarely go together, but Britain’s a place where you never have to travel far to find some hidden gem. My wife and I had a day trip out to Norton about six or seven years ago. The location of the ruins and museum is well hidden. The route takes you through a modern industrial estate and I was convinced we’d taken a wrong turn, even with the sat-nav guiding us.
The priory was an Augustinian foundation from the 12th century and was raised to the status of an abbey in 1391. As part of the dissolution of the monasteries, the abbey was closed in 1536. Excavation begin in 1971 and was to become the largest carried out on any monastic site in Europe during modern times. You can read more about Norton Priory here.
One skeleton discovered during the excavation shows signs of murder, with what appears to have been a sword blow to the back whilst the unfortunate victim was perhaps kneeling in prayer. It’s fairly likely the skeleton is that of Sir Geoffrey Dutton, a crusader knight. As you can image it was the ideal place to do some on-site research for story plots!
You will see Norton (or something based on it) in a future book in the Draychester Chronicles series, watch this space 🙂 The museum has been rebuilt and expanded since we were last there, and it’s high on our “to do again” list. If you get the chance, pay it a visit.