Collaborating with the Community: Applying Non-Invasive Archaeological Methods in the Crypt and Churchyard of St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, Toxteth, Liverpool

Abstract

St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and churchyard, Toxteth, Liverpool, UK, is the focus of community efforts to research and conserve the heritage asset, and archaeologists at the University of Liverpool were invited to contribute their expertise to co-produce new understandings of this locally significant place. Roman Catholic vault burial in Britain has not previously been archaeologically investigated, and the use of rock-cut burial pits, visible in the churchyard, appeared to be a response to the massive demand for urban burial during the nineteenth century. The project has combined local knowledge with surface survey and recording memorials in the churchyard, mapping the crypt and recording the interior of the four vaults at the western end of the crypt after they had been temporarily opened by the community volunteers. This enabled standard and photogrammetric recording, and PXRF analysis of the in-situ coffin fittings. No human remains were revealed. Interviews with volunteers and key stakeholders at the church provided the community’s voice, presented here. This project demonstrates how collaboration enables the skills and abilities of specialists, students and the local community to combine to create new knowledge and enhance public understanding of local heritage, with academically important and locally empowering results.

Keywords

• buildings survey
• community archaeology
• church archaeology
• cultural heritage
• memorial recording
• mortuary archaeology