St Bees

St Bees Man

During 1981, the third year of a series of archaeological investigations at St Bees, attention was transferred to what was an aisle on the south side of the chancel of St Bees Priory. The previous digs elsewhere had foundered, or perhaps drowned, due to wet weather, springs and lack of funds to permit pumping. Some of those areas are now features of the Priory Paddock area of St Bees.

The area of the 1981 dig is a kind of no-man's land - not part of the present church but as close to it as you can get. (See diagram at bottom of page). The photo on the right shows the 1981 dig. This is the area between the ruined wall and the church. The night stairs of the Benedictine Priory can be seen at the top, and the sites of several burial are being investigated in the centre.

Within a short time a number of discoveries were made - the floor level of the chancel aisle, various pottery pieces from the 14th century, and burials from before and after the aisle was built, in disturbed areas of soil below the aisle floor. All these burials, with one exception were skeletons.

The exception was the discovery in a walled vault of a lead coffin. Below can be seen the vault, after removal of coffin. The dark stains are the remains of the outer wooden coffin's ironwork.

The Coffin was removed and carefully cut around the edge to reveal a body in a shroud. This was a unique find in modern times.

There followed a period of feverish activity during which funds and the services of Dr Eddie Tapp, a paleopathologist from Preston who had done much work on Egyptian mummies, were obtained via an emergency grant from the Department of the Environment,

The examination which took place over the next two days made some truly remarkable discoveries, all linked to the amazing degree of preservation of the body. It had been wrapped in linen impregnated with some resinous substance and this, plus other factors, had resulted in the extensive formation of adipocere, a natural process which occurs under certain conditions of cold and dampness (though rarely to this degree). This had preserved the body organs and tissues in such detail that it was possible to determine not only his cause of death, but also his state of general health prior to the injuries that killed him. Details of the findings are described in Dr Todd's historical paper on this site (but be warned, it contains several photographs of the examination which are not for the squeamish!).

The skin, where not stained by the wrapping cloth was still pinkish. The tissues when cut, were very similar to the appearance seen in similar examinations of the recently deceased, and in the chest cavity, liquid blood was found. The anatomical structures of organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys was completely preserved. Indeed, the entire body, apart from the brain was, anatomically though not microscopically at cellular level, as it would be found in a recently dead body, with no signs of any deterioration.

So what did our St Bees Man die of? Clearly he died a violent death, but whether it was in battle or in a tournament of some sort cannot be known. Also, given the trouble that had been taken to preserve the body, it is likely that he died away from St Bees and was transported back here for burial. The immediate cause of death was almost certainly a haemo-pneumothorax due to fractured ribs. Basically this means that one of his lungs had collapsed due to them being punctured by the broken ribs. This led to air and blood getting into the chest cavity and compressing the lung so that it couldn't expand. He also had a fractured right jaw, fracture of the hyod (a small bone in the larynx or voice box). Incidental health problems were a severe dental abscess due to a botched tooth removal, and a very large hydrocoele.

Following the examination, he was reverently re-buried at the chancel aisle where he originally had lain.

So who was he? That unfortunately we do not know, though John & Mary Todd have conducted extensive research into trying to establish his identity. After all these years, if anything his identity is even more shrouded in mystery.

He was a man aged about 40, plus or minus 5 years, who was buried sometime between 1290 and 1500. He was presumably married and a layman, as beside him lay the skeleton of a woman - though it could of course be his sister. The location of the vault implies he was a person of some importance - a local lord perhaps. Possible families include the Curwen, Fleming, Huddlestone and Harrington families. Suggestions include Robert of Harrington and Anthony de Lucy. The evidence for these various suggestions can be found in Dr Todd's paper.

St Bees Man has been the subject of two TV documentaries.
Discovery TV's "Frozen in Time II - Mummies Forever" has been shown both in America and Britain. It was filmed by Pangolin Pictures, New York and includes an item about St Bees Man.

A second documentary has been made, which also includes a segment on St Bees Man. This is by Film Garden Entertainment in Hollywood for the Learning Channel.

Left - View from church tower of dig site. This shows the easterly dig area and the vault is in the middle above the walkway strip, to the left of the plank. The coffin had not been found when this was taken. Below the walkway is the well.

Below - The half excavated vault.

Below - The monastic "night stairs" down which the the monks would descend to attend the first service of the day. In summer this was at 4.00 am.

Below left - The Dig area today. On the south transept wall is a memorial plaque.

Location of the dig

Click here for conjectural map of the Medieval Priory.

General view of the History area, with the shroud display case in the right foreground. The chalice slab, dug up during the St. Bees Man excavations, can be seen at the right on the back wall behind the white case.

A printed booklet is now available about the St. Bees Man; on sale in the Priory Church.

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