The Patients’ Story: Dr Radcliffe's Legacy in the Age of Hospitals – Excavations at the 18th–19th Century Radcliffe – Infirmary Burial Ground, Oxford

Excavations at the site of the burial ground of the old Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, revealed the largest assemblage of individual burials yet recovered from an 18th/19th century hospital site in Britain. Founded in 1770 with funds from the estate of the Royal physician and MP John Radcliffe, the infirmary was rare in having its own dedicated burial ground. The skeletons span a short period of time, between 1770 and 1852, and comprise patients who had not been claimed for burial in their home parish. Virtually all of them are unidentified, but documentary evidence shows that they comprise members of the labouring and middle classes, most of whom had originated from the locality and the surrounding counties. Their bones provide an important perspective on the health of industrialising post-medieval populations, characterised by high rates of trauma and disease. They highlight the hitherto unrecognised role that the operating theatre and mortuary played in the development of medical education in Oxford. Further, they offer a unique and fascinating perspective on early modern hospital care, surgery and burial, from a period when hospitals underwent a radical transformation, becoming the medically-focused institutions that we know today.

About the Author :
Dr Louise Loe is Honorary Research Associate at the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK and Head of Burials at Oxford Archaeology. She has worked on archaeological burial investigations in Britain, France and Malta, and is the co-author of Living and Dying in Southwark 1587-1831: Excavations at Cure's College Burial Ground, Park Street (2017), ‘Given to the Ground’ (2014), ‘Remember Me To All’ (2014), and Life and death in a Roman city: excavation of a Roman cemetery with a mass grave at 120-22 London Road, Gloucester (2008). Helen Webb is Project Officer in the Burials team at Oxford Archaeology and has worked on a wide variety of field and post-excavation burials projects dating from the prehistoric to the early modern periods, including St Paul’s, Hammersmith and St Peter-le-Bailey, Oxford. She is a contributor to Middle Bronze Age and Roman Settlement at Manor Pit, Baston, Lincolnshire: Excavations 2002-2014 (2020) and the co-author of 'Given to the Ground' (2014) and 'Remember Me To All' (2014). Andrew Simmonds is Senior Project Manager, Post-Excavation at Oxford Archaeology. He is the co-author of a number of books including From Mesolithic to Motorway: The Archaeology of the M1 (Junction 6a-10) Widening Scheme, Hertfordshire (2012), In the Shadow of Corinium: Prehistoric and Roman Occupation at Kingshillsouth, Cirencester, Gloucestershire (2018), and Gill Mill: Later Prehistoric Landscape and a Roman Nucleated Settlement in the Lower Windrush Valley at Gill Mill, near Witney, Oxfordshire (2018). Daniel Poore is Chief Operating Officer at Oxford Archaeology and a Director of the Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers (FAME) and is its advisor on health and safety issues. He is the co-author of Excavations at Oxford Castle 1999-2009 (2019) and Under the Oracle (Oxbow, 2013).