1861. SKELETONS UNCOVERED NEAR HALL LODGE

In September 1861, workmen laying a drain near Seaham Hall park gates uncovered 25-30 skeletons, all apparently adult male, at two to three feet below the surface "without any apparent order . . .  without any regard to the points of the compass . . .  others appeared to be doubled up . . .  in some instances the skeletons lay across one another."

(Reported by Aird in his Notes on the Parish of Seaham, 1912).

No associated artefacts were reported. According to Tom McNee the finds were made on 24 September 1861 by Mr G.T.Shaw the agent for Lady Londonderry (quoted in Sunderland Echo, 5 Mar 1983). The finds seems to have been spread over a number of days as witness the following accounts from local papers:

1861. "TWO SKELETONS FOUND"

"On Wednesday afternoon, as the workmen employed on the New Road, were cutting a drain opposite the North entrance of Seaham Hall, when about two feet below the original surface, they came upon a skull of a human being; on further search the bodies of two skeletons - male and female - were found, one lying with the head north, with the face downward; the other in a diagonal direction, on the side, with the knees bent up. They have apparently been buried for a great length of time."

(Seaham Weekly News, 21 Sep 1861)

The account in the Seaham Observer of 21 Sep 1861 varies slightly:

"On Wednesday as some workmen were digging a drain at the new mian entrance to Seaham Hall Park they came upon two human skeletons. There were lying about 2½ feet below the surface. One of the skeletons was that of an elderly and very powerful man, who must have been about 6½ feet in height; the other was that of either a female or a young man, the latter most probably. From appearance it is supposed they must have lain where found for upwards of 50 years."

The account in the Durham Chronicle for Friday 27 Sep 1861 is as follows:

"SKELETONS FOUND AT SEAHAM:

"On Wednesday afternoon a number of workmen employed in the construction of the new road between Seaham and Ryhope, were cutting a drain opposite the North entrance to Seaham Hall, when about two feet below the surface they discovered two human skeletons and a large quantity of human bones, which had evidently lain there for a long period of time."

While, on the 28th, but more specific, we find:

"MORE SKELETONS FOUND:

Last week we gave an account of two Skeletons having been discovered near the north entrance to Seaham Hall, this week nine more have been found near the same spot. As to how, and by what means they came there, will afford study for Historians."

(Seaham Weekly News, 28 Sep 1861)

The site is apparently near the Hall Lodge where the new road along the coast passes north of Seaham Hall. This road was a Londonderry project, made possible by an exchange of land that brought certain coastal fields into Londonderry control in 1860. This first era of discovery about ancient Seaham (including the 'opening' of the mound?) was therefore probably a by-product of the various works involved in laying the new road.

Aird notes that Bethune viewed the discovery of the skeletons and read a paper on it to the Seaham Harbour Natural History Club in the winter of 1861 - no copy of this seems to survive. But Aird says that Bethune, from the lack of artefacts, deduced a 'British' (pre-Anglo-Saxon) burial mode; Aird himself interprets the scene as one of "hasty burial . . . after a battle with Picts or Scots."

It should be stressed that these conclusions are necessary speculative, though they are often repeated as established fact. For example, doubled-up bodies may represent an authentic prehistoric burial posture: no violence need be involved. Again, haphazard positioning may result from the re-use of a site for burials over a long period, and even from changes of orientating bodies within the Christian era: it need not suggest 'hasty' burial. The assumption of the bodies as being of a particular age or sex from a quick survey or probably incomplete remains is unreliable: even if verified, a group of male skeletons could result from the monastic practice of burying monks separately from lay population, and need not indicate a group of warriors or the aftermath of battle.

1913. ANGLO-SAXON WINDOWS UNCOVERED AT ST MARY'S CHURCH

In 1913 Matt Nicholson uncovered Anglo-Saxon windows, with single shaped capping stones, in the wall of the nave at St Mary's. This was reported by Aird in a 1913 appendix to his 1912 Notes, and in articles by him in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 3rd series, vol.6 (1913) 59-71 and in Antiquities of Sunderland Vol.15 (1914).

The early nature of these window openings (comparable to Escomb and Corbridge) was overlooked by Robson in a modern guidebook to St Mary's, where he took the presence of both Anglo-Saxon and Norman features in one building to indicate a date in the 11th century (the Anglo-Norman 'overlap') - a decision unhappily accepted by McNee and repeated occasionally in the local press and even the latest Easington District Visitors Guide. For a more informed assessment of St Mary's, see H.M. & J. Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture (Cambridge, 1963) vol.2, pp.534-5 - a copy of these pages is deposited with Seaham Library.

The date for the building of St Mary's thus becomes shifted back to the pre-Conquest period, and by stylistic affinity to a date as early as the 7th-8th centuries, though the earliest written historical reference comes in 933 AD, when a charter of King Athelstan granted Seaham and other estates to the Community of St Cuthbert (then at Chester-le-Street). The Church at St Mary's would be monastic by origin, with wooden buildings (now long lost) for housing the monks and storage purposes; but to which larger monastic house Seaham owned allegiance is not known - Lindisfarne, Hexham and Monkwearmouth-Jarrow are all possibilities.

1930S. FIND IN THE HALL GROUNDS

J.Butler, who worked for the Hall when it became a Sanatorium under Durham County Council, remembers the discovery of a confused set of animal bones some three to four feet below the surface, at the side of the dene, when sewerage was being put in for the Sanatorium. This is compatible with an early rubbish pit, where remains of meals and other debris might have been disposed of in one hole.

Later Mr Butler, who lived in the Lodge, was erecting an air-raid shelter (1939) when he came upon two skeletons just to the south side of the building; these finds may be assumed to be part of the burial site uncovered in the 1860s.

1983. THE GAS MAIN

In 1983 a gas main was being put in, in association with the residential conversion of the Hall; it ran from the Lodge gates along the wall inside the grounds. The trench revealed a large number of skeletons - perhaps a dozen or more ("bones were sticking out along both sides of the narrow trench," the workmen said) - and some 2 or 3 examples were examined more closely. The police were called, and in turn brought in Tom McNee, a local teacher and historian; the find was reported in The Sunderland Echo of 5 Mar 1983; unfortunately no archaeologist seems to have had a chance to examine the site, and a police medical examination contented itself with reporting that the bones were "well over 100 years old." The skeletons examined were thought to be male, and considered youthful because of the full sets of teeth in the skulls.

1996. THE FIRST EXCAVATION

In the 1990s, pressure to redevelop the site of the former remand home, between the Rectory and the coastal road, led to an excavation - the first professional dig ever attempted in Seaham - by Northern Archaeological Associates in March 1996 (ref. NAA 96/8). The site in fact proved seriously obstructed by remains of 20th and 19th century foundations, and though plentiful evidence of earlier post-holes emerged, no clear history of building on the site could be put together. A fragment or two of early pottery, a peripheral stone foundation possibly part of an earlier monastic building, and a curved ditch feature - just possibly a former boundary of the monastery church - were potential points of note.

Nonetheless, the dig generated much interest locally, and support from Professor Rosemary Cramp, who gave talks about the project in Seaham, was especially appreciated.

1997 EXCAVATION

Excavations were renewed in 1997 with the purpose of recovering the site of the cemetery reported back in 1861, near the Lodge at Seaham Hall. Some ten skeletons were uncovered, lying orientated west to east, a mix of male and female adults, none actually complete. There were no grave goods, pointing - as does the orientation - to a Christian context. A printed report was issued in February 1998 (ref. NAA 97/47), titled Excavation of a cemetery at Seaham Hall Lodge, County Durham, which include results of radiocarbon dating of two samples of bones to within the ranges AD 660-790 and AD 660-880, which are strongly suggestive of the pre-Viking age, and raise the possibility of a very early date in the Christian period for this area (i.e. 7th century A.D.).

This work at least confirmed an Anglo-Saxon date for the settlement of the area, and prompted calls for a more detailed excavation of the old cemetery area, to find out more about these early inhabitants of Seaham. A second excavation, in the nearby Flower Field, was therefore arranged for August 1999.

1999 EXCAVATION

The 1999 excavation took place on the Flower Field at Old Seaham, 16-27 August, unfortunately during weather that proved depressingly cold and wet. A number of trial trenches were opened to investigate possible features noted on geophysical surveys, but only the area immediately adjacent to the Lodge i.e. the continuation of the cemetery, proved significant. Here skeletons were soon encountered, orientated east-west, and without apparent grave-goods. The first group of skeletons uncovered included one interred on its side, with knees bent. Under this, further skeletons were discovered, including a group of skulls, and still lower, more remains, indicating that the ground had been utilised for burial over a considerable period.

Twenty-four bodies were uncovered in all, two of them apparently buried face down "with their arms behind their back", as reported in the Sunderland Echo. The finding of bronze pins suggested the original presence of shrouds, and one coffin hinge proved comparable with a find at a monastic site of the C8-9th near Ripon Cathedral. This season's dig added to the weight of the evidence for a pre-Viking Christian use of the site i.e. before 800AD.

Meanwhile, a date as early as the mid C7th seems less and less improbable. This would be a bare century after the Angles first settled the area, and among the earliest sites in the North for the conversion of these pagans to Christianity. Dating is critical here, for missionary work in the middle of the C7th was dominated by Irish-Scottish influence moving south from the Tweed Valley, whereas in the later C7th the initiative had passed to the successors of Augustine at Canterbury and a tradition of Christianity more closely linked to Rome.

Further work at Seaham may lead to important discoveries that could place the origin of the Christian presence in a more exactly defined cultural context. This in turn could tell us more about the pattern of early Christian missions in the area.

Looking even further back, the suspicion is that Seaham carried on from a yet earlier habitation site. But whether this was 'native' British, or a Roman signal station, or went back even earlier is unclear. The lack of authenticated pre-Anglo-Saxon finds for the area so far leaves much of this earliest history of Seaham in the realm of speculation, with many gaps that only further excavation can hope to fill . . . 

THE CARPARK FACTOR

If the extent of the burial ground on the Flower Field prove limited, then this raises the question of how far the remains might extend north, that is, beyond the Lodge and the road on what is now a carpark area between the road and a small dene near Howfoot Plantation. Skeletons were discovered in 1861 not in the path of the road, but during the digging of a drain: it may be however that the road was laid largely on the surface, while installing the drain meant going significantly ('two or three feet') below the surface. It is hard to be certain, for the road follows an artificial level where it crosses the blocked dene and for a while north of there; by the time it reaches the Lodge, it seems to be at normal expected ground-level again, so that skeletons beneath might have been unnoticed by the road-makers (or ignored, of course).

Could Anglo-Saxon burials have extended north of the road, under the present carpark? The history of the carpark seems to be that it was open land until in the 1930s when a series of wooden huts were erected to provide holidays for disadvantaged school-children from all over the County. During the War, the huts were utilised by the Army, and after the War, occupied by 'squatters' awaiting rehousing. None of this need cause much disturbance, but the conversion to the current carpark seems to have been accompanied by considerable earth-shifting, as evidenced by irregular heaps in the present grass-scape. Nonetheless there are unverified stories of a sword being found here during work on the site, elusive evidence of the charismatic warrior-folk that always seem to form the centre of popular accounts.