After looking through " The Empire Of Death" I discovered there was a crypt below Holy trinity Church in Rothwell, this was quite quite fortunate as Rothwell is only a 40 minute car drive from Leicester. I went on the church's website to find that the crypt is open to the public on every second Sunday of the month.
There was at one time several English charnels but many of these have been lost, but the one at Rothwell, rediscovered in c. 1700, has been preserved, with the bones placed in their current arrangement in 1912.
The bones are dated between two distinct periods: one group between 1300 and 1400, appear shorter and whitish in colour. The second group was deposited in the late sixteenth century; those bones are longer and show a brownish discolouration due to putrefied skin and the tannin in oak coffins.
It was quite the experience, going into the church then venturing down a very small stone staircase into the crypt with nearly all the walls containing skulls on shelves and two massive piles of bones and skulls stacked up in the centre of the room.
The crypt was cool with a dampness in the air, the man who was a part of the church was giving an informal tour to a group and said he's been down there quite a bit by himself and "finds it quite peaceful" where as another woman who works there refuses to go in the crypt at all . I guess it's because death, and certainly the crypt itself is a very subject thing we interpret it in different ways; some through preference, fear, experience and in some cases our ignorance.
The left side of the room
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