St Peter's Church

With a history spanning over a millennium, St Peter's Church is among the most important historic buildings in England. It combines a remarkably complete Anglo-Saxon tower and rare baptistry, dating mainly from c. 970, with a tall and impressive medieval nave and chancel displaying a range of architectural styles. This much studied church is an archaeological as well as an architectural treasure-trove, and Britain's largest resource for historic bone analysis. The analysis of 2,800 burials here, during the nine centuries dating from Anglo-Saxon to Victorian times, has yielded unprecedented insights into medieval disease and diet, and medical and burial practices.

St Peter's is now open after a major £600,000 conservation, repair and interpretation project. Buried Lives, a new interactive exhibition, offers greater understanding of this important church and the archaeological revelations it has produced. These include the facts that both arthritis and polio were prevalent in the once-important port of Barton-upon-Humber, and that although its medieval children grew more slowly than today's, its adults were almost as tall as modern people. The display also provides social insights into the lives of those buried here, including reconstructions of individual life histories. It features three reconstructed skeletons, the earliest of a man probably born in the reign of King Canute, and now restored to its rare original oak coffin. All the bones excavated here between 1978 and 1984 have now been returned to a specially-built 'ossuary', allowing them to rest on consecrated ground, yet remain available for research.

Thornton Abbey and Gatehouse is nearby.