| The present Priest-in-Charge, the Revd David Rowett, gave me a few of the findings from the academic work that has now been published. For most of the centuries under study, the people were well-nourished, and life expectancy rose from about 30 to 45 years. Osteoarthritis was common among labourers.
In 1593, some 26 per cent of the population — 274 people — were wiped out by the plague, but there was little TB, polio, or rickets. Several men had blade-inflicted head injuries. Two medieval clergy were found to be buried with a mortuary chalice.
One person in the 18th century, all of whose internal organs had been removed in an autopsy, had been stuffed, and a wooden pole inserted for a spine, while two 19th-century citizens were buried with their hernia trusses still in place.
Now their bones are all in a specially built ossuary in the church. The 1549 eucharist is being used for the Requiem because it is “strongly continuous with the medieval eucharist”, and has elements from the Anglo-Saxon period.
The music will be Merbecke, and the Lord’s Prayer will be said in each of the three languages to have been heard in the church over the centuries: Cranmerian English, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon.
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