Mass grave shows how Black Death devastated the countryside

The mass grave near Immingham contains the remains of at least 48 men, women and children. Photograph: University of Sheffield/PA

Mass grave shows how Black Death devastated the countryside
Grave in Lincolnshire dates to medieval pandemic of 1348 and reveals rural plague catastrophe

A mass grave containing the remains of dozens of victims of the Black Death offers chilling new evidence of the speed and scale of the devastation the plague brought to rural England, according to archaeologists.

The grave, discovered in a remote corner of rural Lincolnshire, has been dated to the 14th century, almost certainly to the earliest and deadliest medieval outbreak of the disease in 1348-9.

It contained the bodies of at least 48 men, women and children who were laid in a sandy pit within days of each other. DNA tests on the bodies found the plague pathogen, confirming how they died.

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English Family Fined for ‘Cynical’ Destruction of Medieval Village

Historic England have announced the remains of Withybrook medieval village in Warwickshire have been irreparably damaged by a family, who wanted to graze horses.

John Mac, 58, his wife Elizabeth and their daughter Heather have been found guilty of causing “irreparable damage” to a medieval village and have been fined £160,000. Historic England formally charged the Mac family after they carried out illegal building works between 2015 and 2018, without having obtained Scheduled Monument Consent.

The family ignored repeated warnings from Historic England and the local council. They kept digging up land at Withybrook village including, according to the Telegraph, “laying a 4m wide track, and installing a water pipe, troughs and gate posts.”

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