Information on Loughborough

Digging the Dead at Donington le Heath Manor House

Posted on 10/06/2008

gravestone

Five thousand years of death and burial in Leicestershire and Rutland will be featured in an exhibition opening on 13th June at Donington le Heath Manor House.

The exhibition, called Digging the Dead, explores how burial rites reflect beliefs and displays a range of objects taken to the grave by local period over the last 5000 years. Objects – many on display for the first time- include a flint tool kit found with a Neolithic skeleton at Husbands Bosworth; a beaker from Smeeton westerby; replicas of gold bracelets (now at the British Museum) from a Bronze Age burial mound at Lockington; a miniature shield, probably a good luck charm found with an Iron Age skeleton at Breedon on the Hill; an iron knife and 2 pots found with a Roman skeleton during the building of the Great Glen Bypass; a Roman bronze skillet that was used to hold a cremation at Hallaton; and Anglo-Saxon brooches and weapons from a number of sites including Wigston Magna.

Mr Ernie White, Lead Member for community services for Leicestershire County Council said “we are very pleased to have brought together such a range of information and finds concerning death and burial across the centuries in this area. I think that the public will find this a fascinating exhibition”.

Donington le Heath Manor House is near Hugglescote, Coalville. Admission and car parking is free. The Manor House is open 7 days a week, 11am to 4pm. For further information phone the Manor House on 01530 831259.