Whitburn Parish Church, stone coffin

HER Number:
12213

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
Whitburn Parish Church, stone coffin

Place:
Whitburn

Map Sheet:
NZ46SW

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Funerary Site

Site Type: Specific:
Coffin

General Period:
Medieval

Specific Period:

Form of Evidence:
Structure

Description:
Hutchinson (p. 13) refers to an old stone coffin with a lid bearing a pair of scissors (or shears?) being found during the 1867 restoration of the church, and placed in the churchyard. This is presumably the coffin and lid of coarse sandstone now lying to the east of the south porch. Both have the same distinctive shape with the head semi-circular and slightly shouldered (2m x 0.54m x 0.37m). There is now no trace of any carving on the lid, which is broken into several pieces. The coffin is unusual because the head cavity is almost conical in section. The edges of the lid are rounded. There are no parallels in County Durham. The coffin may be post medieval.

Easting:
4054

Northing:
6166

Grid Reference:
NZ40546166

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Peter F. Ryder, 1985, The Medieval Cross Slab Grave Cover in County Durham, Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland Research Report No. 1, p 119; J. Hutchinson, not dated, The Story of the Parish Church, Whitburn