A series of early graves were revealed during a watching brief carried out in 2011 at the Church of St Nicholas, New Romney. 6 were located at a greater depth than the rest and appear to pre date the 13th century work at the church. It is likley therefore, that they are contemporary with the earliest phase of construction at the Church, dated to the 12th century. In detail they were Sealed by demolition/ construction deposits, which were encountered across the development area, each grave was cut into the underlying natural sand dune deposits by approximately 0.25m. Extending along the entire area of the scheme, each grave contained the articulated remains of a prone adult burial laid with their head towards the west in typical Christian fashion. Whilst four graves (Graves 1-3 and 6) were sufficiently spaced apart to suggest each burial may have originally possessed a marker, Grave 4 had been partially removed by the later excavation of Grave 5. Whilst the general spacing of the other graces could indicate unrelated burials the close positioning of Graves 4 and 5 could suggest family members, though it may also indicate the lack of a burial marker for Grave 4. Whilst the dating of burials within churchyards is often problematic due to their intercutting nature and the lack of associated finds, this small group of graves can be suggested to be of pre thirteenth-century date due to similarities with Grave 6. Situated towards the western extent of the development area, this grave, which shared a similar alignment to the other five, had been cut into by the construction trench of the later north aisle buttress foundation. Removing the grave’s northeastern corner, it clearly indicated the burial pre-dated the construction of the laternorth aisle, architecturally dated to the early-mid thirteenth century(1) (information summarised from source)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2011, Archaeological watching brief at St Nicholas' Church, Church Road, New Romney (Unpublished document). SKE24853.