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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