There’s is a rare opportunity to find out more about our Peterborough ancestors. More particularly, about 130 people who were Peterborough residents between the 12th and 16th centuries and who came to be buried in a graveyard associated with the St Leonard’s leper hospital.
St Leonard’s was known as The Spital, and of course this name lives on in the name of the nearby bridge
where Mayor’s Walk crosses the railway.
Only about a third of the skeletons exhibit signs of leprosy. It is likely that The Spital was home to people with a wider variety of afflictions and illness.
Their remains were excavated in 2014 in advance of new housing being constructed on the old GB Oils site between Midland Road and the railway. The skeletons have now all been analysed and a report published by York Archaeological Trust.
We’ve added a summary page about St Leonard’s and its cemetery – and a link to the full report.
