The Conservation of a Lead Paten and Chalice Fragments from 16 Hady Hill, Spital, Chesterfield

This investigation arose when Mrs Stevenson was landscaping her garden at 16 Hady Hill, Spital, Chesterfield, in June 2000. During the machine excavation a burial structure was located. It is known that the leper hospital of St Leonard was situated in this area though the exact location has not been known. The hospital was in use between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries. Following consultation with Derbyshire Chesterfield Museum, ARCUS Sites and Monuments Records office and was appointed to excavate the burial and investigate the surrounding area. This report describes the results of the rescue excavation. The area excavated and investigated was located on the eastern side of the house and measured 4.6m X 2.3m. One elaborate composite stone burial was located which contained the skeleton of a male adult aged over 50 years old at the time of death. A paten and a metal deposit which was likely to have been a chalice were located on the chest area of the body. These artefacts were often buried with a priest in the medieval period. To the south of the burial, a substantial (but truncated) wall was located on the same alignment as the burial. This wall is likely to have been part of the southern wall of a chapel, suggesting that the priest had been buried inside a chapel, possibly near the altar. In between this substantial wall and the burial a smaller wall was located on the same alignment. This is likely to have been an internal partition, or a boundary wall dating to the post-medieval period.