On Saturday 2nd May the Washburn Heritage Centre participated in the very interesting conference organised by the British Association for Local History held at the Devonshire Institute Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales. Sally Robinson described the history of the establishment of the Heritage Centre and particularly focussed on the “The Fewston Assemblage” which is a collection of human remains and artefacts. The Heritage Centre, completed in 2011, is located in an extension to Fewston Church. To enable this extension to be built a part of the churchyard had to be excavated and remains removed. It was decided that a project should take place to identify the remains where possible. Sally stressed that this could not have been possible without the support of descendants, academic partners and the Heritage Lottery Fund. It was initially estimated that there would be 50 sets of remains in the excavated space but there were 154. It was possible to establish the identity of 22 of the remains through coffin plates and find out more about them through research. Examination of the remains provided information about health, nutrition, dental health, injuries. Of particular note are a number of remains of adolescents who it is presumed were brought into the area to work in the local flax mills as pauper apprentices. The results of this work are summarised as ‘Churchyard Secrets Revealed’ and record information about the 22 identified people and the other aspects life in the Washburn Valley in the 19th century. Funding has just been received from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a further phase working with the same partners. This latest project is called ‘Churchyard Secrets Shared’.
The Administrator for the Heritage Centre said, “We are grateful to have opportunities like this so we can share with others the findings from the research and so we can encourage them to visit the lovely Washburn Valley.”
The exhibition to accompany Churchyard Secrets Shared will be available to view from 1st July.
