Map evidence of graves
Large grave pits could formerly be observed on the battlefield however, from the sixteenth century (Smith 1907) until the eighteenth century (Drake 1736).
The initial targets of the survey were therefore sites of reported but unconfirmed graves on the battlefield. If these could be located and related to the battle they would help to quantify the number of dead from the conflict and would also determine if the injuries on the skeletons from the Towton mass grave were typical of those sustained on the battlefield itself.
In his eighteenth century map, Jefferys annotated several rectangles in the area between Towton and Saxton with the words “The Graves in Towton Field”. These are marked as being on the right of the bend between Saxton and Towton. On a later map, Cary shows a similar location for “The Graves in Towton Field”, but he depicts them as circles in the shape of a “W”. By 1849 however, the Ordnance Survey has turned the “W”-shaped alignment, moved them further south and put it on the opposite (i.e. Western) side of the B1217 Road, where it has remained on all subsequent maps.
Geophysical surveys, field walking and other forms of archaeological prospection techniques carried out within this field have subsequently failed to locate any evidence to suggest that it ever contained graves.
Interestingly, fragments of human remains have now been found to the east of the road suggesting that the location indicated on the earlier maps may have been correct after all. These findings confirm that the location of features depicted on all maps should be verified before any further conclusions can be drawn.
An Earth Resistance survey of the area marked on the 1849 OS map as “Tumuli” revealed nothing. A magnetic survey also revealed nothing.
But, why the change of location ?
Perhaps the answer can be found in the most often used quotes regarding “The Graves”.
“Certaine deep trenches overgrown with bushes and briers, containing 19 yards in breadth and 32 yards in length in Towton field, a bowshot on the left hand in the way betwixt Saxton and Towton, half a myle short of Towton.” – Harlaian Manuscipt 17th century MS 795, (Boardman 1996, 94)
“The graves nere Saxton ar certaine depe trenches overgrowne with bushes and bryers, containe 19 yerdes in breadth and 32 yerds in length in Towton Field, 3 bowshott on the left hand in the way twixt Sherborn and Towton half a myle short of Towton.” – Dodsworth 1619-31 (YAS 1904)
Using Leadman’s map of 1889,
- “a bowshot on the left hand in the way betwixt Saxton and Towton” would follow the red arrow and arrive at a place on the left side of the road, whilst
- “3 bowshott on the left hand in the way twixt Sherborn and Towton” would follow the green arrow and arrive at a place on the right side of the road.
- The blue arrow marks the stump of Lord Dacre’s Bur Tree.
Mass Grave(s)
Having found approximately 50 individuals in a mass grave near Towton Hall, it may seem surprising that no skeletons were recorded as being found in the fields associated with the battle.
Descriptions of the battlefield by the Antiquary John Leland in the sixteenth century however, state that human bones were removed from the battlefield by a Mr. Hungate (Smith 1907).
Detailed archival research has recently uncovered what appears to be a previously unpublished document. This confirms that the skeletal material from the graves was removed in the late fifteenth century on the orders of King Richard III and reburied within the churchyards at Saxton and the then newly constructed or refurbished chapel at Towton. In this document Richard states that :
“the people of this kingdom in a plentiful multitude were taken away from human affairs; and their bodies were notoriously left on the field, aforesaid, and in other places nearby, thoroughly outside the ecclesiastical burial-place, in three hollows. Where upon we, on account of affection, contriving the burial of the deceased men of this sort, caused the bones of these same men to be exhumed and left for an ecclesiastical burial in these coming months, partly in the parish church of Saxton in our said county of York and in the cemetery of the said place, and partly in the chapel of Towton, aforesaid, and the surroundings of this very place.” Richard III, 1484
This suggests that the human remains removed by Hungate were from a site that has subsequently been called the graves, although whether any formal graves pits were originally constructed on the battlefield has recently been debated.