Dunstable Yesteryear - Where a skeleton was found

A Roman skeleton was discovered when this section of Albion Street, Dunstable, was excavated by members of the Manshead Archaeological Society in 1981.

They had seized the opportunity to examine the land after a row of cottages was knocked down, prior to building the present Eleanor’s Court apartments.

This photo was taken in May 1981 after scrub had been cleared from the demolition site. Archaeological work continued until April the following year.

A medieval well with its top lined by Totternhoe stone was uncovered and the skeleton was found partially underneath an old wall whose builders had not noticed what lay beneath.

Disappointingly, no evidence was found of Dunstable’s emergency cemetery used when England was excommunicated by the Pope in 1209 during a dispute with King John. For three years burial was forbidden in the consecrated ground at Dunstable’s Priory and historians believed that the bodies were interred instead in the Albion Street area. A number of coffins and skeletons were discovered when houses were built in Victorian times but the exact locations were not recorded.

The 1981 photo shows (top right) the Borough Arms pub on the corner of Edward Street.  The Victorian-era pub closed in 2009. It reopened for a short time as Goffy’s bar but is now a private dwelling.

Yesteryear is compiled by John Buckledee, chairman of Dunstable and District Local History Society.