The gruesome spires
Yesterdayâs Meet the Ancestors programme was an interesting exploration of some recent gruesome discoveries just outside the old Oxford Gaol. The old prison (next to the old castle mound) is being redeveloped (surprise, surprise) into a luxury hotel and apartments. Three of the old cells will form each of the fancy new en-suite hotel rooms. However, after watching the programme, I donât think that I would want to stay there, even if I had the money.
They got archaeologists in to check that there was nothing of interest in the area of the castle moat, only to find a number of human skeletonsâI bet the developers loved that. Further investigations found a large number of bodies in mass graves in the old moat. Some of the bodies were dismembered or otherwise disrespectfully treated, and others were of children of about 12-16 years old.
This was odd because the moat was unconsecrated ground, and even the executed criminals were given a decent burial in consecrated ground within the prison walls. One of the bodies in the moat had the top of his skull sawn off, his face removed, and then the remains of his head forced inside the chest cavityânot what you might call respectful treatment of a human body. This seemed to be the work of medical students (dissection could only legally be performed on executed murderers), but it still didnât explain why they werenât reburied in the prison graveyard.
