Churchyard Wall, All Saints Church, Houghton Regis

As part of the faculty requirements for the repair and rebuilding of part of the western churchyard wall at All Saints Church, Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, the Heritage Network was commissioned to undertake a watching brief on the groundworks. All Saints Church is a Grade I listed building in Decorated Gothic style. The current building dates predominately to the 14th century, with some later additions during the 16th century and rebuilding in 1879. An earlier church is recorded on the site in the Domesday Survey of 1086. Observation of the works during the present project revealed a standard stratigraphic sequence within churchyards, which consisted of topsoil, cemetery soil and natural. A small quantity of disarticulated human bone was encountered within the cemetery soil behind the wall. The remains were handed to the vicar for reburial. The risk of encountering disarticulated human bone was expected and no articulated remains were revealed. No evidence for an earlier alignment of the churchyard wall was encountered and no other features, deposits or finds were present.