Thimbles, clay pipes and rat bones found in pub dig

This German thimble was one of the most interesting finds

German thimbles, clay pipes and rat bones have been among the finds at a dig at a disused pub.

Human remains were also discovered during the excavations of a path and part of the churchyard next to the Old Black Lion in Northampton.

The Churches Conservation Trust, which owns the adjacent church, is restoring the pub so it can be reopened.

John Buglass, an archaeologist on the project, said the sun and tree roots were the two biggest problems on the dig.

Volunteers were invited to join professional archaeologists for a week to find out where the brick alleyway alongside the pub led to, and to explore the adjacent graveyard.

John Buglass said there were two main difficulties during the week: "One was the sun because it beats down off the wall of the pub and it has been roasting.

"The volunteers have done a cracking job wilting in the sunshine.

"The other was getting all the wretched tree roots out from all the shrubs that have been allowed to grow while the pub has been effectively empty. That actually disturbed a lot of the archaeology."

The dig is part of the project to reopen the Old Black Lion pub

As part of the area is a churchyard and St Peter's Church is next door, the archaeologists were not surprised to find some human bones, although there was "relatively little human bone as we're quite high up in the sequence of deposits".

The archaeologist John Buglass said the volunteers did a "cracking job" in the warm sunshine

Other bones were more significant.

"What we have got which is possibly slightly worrying is quite a bit of rat bone - they've been inhabiting the graveyard," said Mr Buglass.

"We've also got one frog bone, quite a bit of bird bone, not just chickens, we've also got birds that are living wild."

The volunteers uncovered an old alleyway during the dig

The earth also surrendered broken pottery and bits of glass.

Mr Buglass said: "Either someone's been very naughty in the past and has been dumping their rubbish in the churchyard, or, more likely, someone's been doing some levelling in the churchyard and imported some soil from nearby and got rid of all the bumps and lumps."

A knife handle was found during the dig

A belt buckle was uncovered as part of the project

There was some Roman pottery, German thimbles and, from more recent times, clay pipes which might have been dropped by pub-goers.

The human remains will be examined by an expert and then returned to the ground where they came from.