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St. Leonard’s Ossuary: Home of the Dead


Kent has within it many treasures and mysteries. If you find yourself in the coastal town of Hythe and fancy driving up some steep and tight winding roads then take a trip to St. Leonard’s Ossuary. It is here you will find an overlooked morbid curiosity. St Leonard’s Church has the largest and best-preserved collection of ancient human skulls and bones in Britain.

One of the many shelves
On our journey their during 2018, it took us some time to find the entrance to the Ossary. It’s easy to assume that you need to go down to the heavy crypt doors, but they are sealed and do not offer admittance to the public. Once found the Ossary is but a small set of doors off to the side of the main chapel. It has a tiny shop with a pleasant attendant in the front, just behind them sits, in four arched bays one thousand skulls along with a block of miscellaneous bones and skulls. The sight is imposing and humbling. The bone stack alone measures 7.5m in length, 1.8m in width and just over 1.8m in height. Being confronted with such a large collection of human remains, was for me a very new experience. Each one would have had a tale and even in death they revealed some clues about their life and departure from it.

My partner Marisa next to the block of bones

It’s evident from the remains that some suffered breakages during the individual’s lifetime and partial healing, while others show evidence of puncture wounds, arthritis and bone diseases. What really blew my mind was that all of the teeth lacked decay, proving how awful our modern diets are for our teeth. While many were missing teeth none suffered from decay. 

Originally it was believed that the Ossuary contained the remains of 4000 people, but the most recent estimation is more likely around 2000. While there were many fanciful theories of who these bones belonged to, such as slaughtered Danish pirates or perhaps warriors who fell at the Battle of Hastings, they have all been disproven. The majority of remains are female and around 10% are juvenile (sub-adults in archaeological terminology).

The prominent theory is that the remains are from four graveyards in the Hythe area that were closed before the 16th century. The soil deposits in the skulls reveal they were originally buried within The town itself, however the date of death is hard to place. Estimates vary between the 12th and 15th century. We happened to arrive a few days after they had been broken into and twenty one of the skulls stolen. It was suspected that they were taken to be sold on the black market.

What once housed a brain, then became a home for a bird

Normally the Charnel House is closed to the public aside from the occasional Sunday, it is now shut until further notice due to the pandemic. But no matter where you are in the world you can view a small 3D rendered virtual tour online. While this does take from the gravity of being there it does show they layout. With a small jump of the imagination you can imagine what the real sight would be like and perhaps the magnitude of seeing so many dead.



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