The finds were made at a 19th-century site in New Cove Garden Market.
News reports and social media anxiety can make us feel that life is hard in Britain today, but the extraordinary finds from a new archaeological dig have provided a salutary reminder that, a couple of centuries ago, it was much worse.
Archaeologists working at an early 19th-century burial site in New Covent Garden market, south-west London, where around 100 bones were found, have said they contain evidence of hard work, including violence, a coronavirus outbreak, epidemic disease, physical deformities, malformations and cardiovascular disease.
The Burial offers an extraordinary insight into life in the early days of the industrial age, between the 1830s and 1850s. It shows the harshness of life for poor industrialists that Charles Dickens described so acutely in his classics.
Skeletal remains of what may have been Dickeпs’ objects, which could be considered among the earliest ‘modern’ Loппdпers, have been discovered by WesSєx Archaeology during excavation of part of a cemetery originally situated on the site of New Coveпt Garden market in Niпe Elms.
The cemetery was attached to the church of St George the Martyr. The site had been partially cleared in the 1960s, just before the new market was built, after being moved from its original location to central London.
Kirsteп Eggiпg Diпwiddy, a senior theoarchaeologist at WesSєx Archaeology, told the Guard that these were people who had led “a life of hard work and survival.”
This part of the capital has undergone a particularly dramatic change, from rural orchards to an industrialised, industrialised environment in just a few years, he said. “Suddenly the world changes and there are horrible factories and gases… Gas plants, huge railway depots, lots of construction sites.”
He added: “The staggering number of harmful, hazardous and labour-intensive industries would have created very poor working and living conditions, although large numbers of people used to flock to the area to take advantage of the employment opportunities. Most of those trying to survive there and around would have been classified as poor or very poor.”
Three burials in particular offer fascinating images. One of them reveals a woman who had suffered from lifelong corneal syphilis and had led a strenuous working life involving intensive use of her upper arms and shoulders.
She had a broken skull and a wound on the back of her neck, suggesting she was murdered. Archaeologists believe she was attacked, probably from behind, with a thick knife stabbed in the right ear.
Eggig Diwiddy said she “would have had a less than pretty smile” as she had lost both of her front teeth, probably due to a huge cyst on the roof of her mouth. She also suffered from syphilis.
Approximately 40% of the burials were of children under 12 years of age, reflecting the high infant mortality rates of the time.
This type of burial is made more poignant by the fact that there is a plaque on the coffin that reveals the name of Jaпe Clara Jay, who was born on March 18, 1847, just before her second birthday.
She was the daughter of Sarah Jay and her labourer husband, George James Jay, of Niпe Elms. Archaeologists found signs of malnutrition, but the exact cause of her death is unclear.
New Covet Garden Market is the largest fresh produce market in the UK. Its 175 businesses employ over 2,500 people. In partnership with Vici St. Moedwe, it is undergoing a major redevelopment with new buildings and facilities.
