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Cllr James Kempton unveiling a plaque to mark the topping-out, with representatives from Fortune Park Children’s Centre, Prior Weston Primary School, and the primary department of Richard Cloudesley School |
Bodies find last resting place
Memorial service will be held for remains dug up during school building work
A MEMORIAL service will be held later this year to mark the re-burial of hundred of bodies exhumed during building work at a Finsbury school.
About 10,000 bones have been sifted into 250 coffins and re-buried in a mass grave at Islington Cemetery in East Finchley.
They were discovered during the re-building of Prior Weston Primary School in Golden Lane, where there was a non-denomination burial site between 1833 and 1853.
Richard Baldwin, business administration manager for Islington Cemetery, said: “They are planning to have some sort of service later this year and I’ve an idea there may be a memorial too.
“We’ve got to finish landscaping the grounds and then we will look at it.” The non-denominational service could include a reading by the new Islington Mayor, Councillor Barbara Smith.
The grave is to be turfed over and a simple memorial stone could mark the spot where the bodies have been re-buried. Mr Baldwin said the Golden Lane coffins were one of the biggest burials dealt with by his team – second only to the tens of thousands of bones found at St Pancras station during work on the Channel Tunnel rail terminus.
When work began at the school last year, 11 pits were dug by Museum of London experts to check for human remains.
Some of the bones were dug up by archaeologists and the rest by a commercial exhumation contractor. The final cost of removal was £2.1 million.
A topping-out ceremony at the school last Thursday was attended by Islington Mayor Councillor Jyoti Vaja, in one of her last duties, and Town Hall chief executive Helen Bailey.
The ceremony is held when construction work reaches its highest point.
The new Golden Lane campus will accommodate Fortune Park Children’s Centre, Prior Weston Primary School, the primary department of Richard Cloudesley School for physically disabled pupils, and a sports centre.
Lib Dem council leader James Kempton said at the ceremony: “Once it is open in April 2008, this will be a modern, inclusive campus, and one that can be used by the whole community, who will benefit from facilities such as the sports centre.” |
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