Tenth grave found

Press, 20 November 1981, Page 6

Tenth grave found

The archaeologists exhuming the remains of persons buried in the Withells Road Methodist cemetery, Avonhead, have come across a tenth grave where there were thought to be only nine. The grave is 14 years older than the one previously thought to be the oldest. The grave is that of Abraham Stubbs, whose body was found floating in the Avon River in September, 1862. Foul play was suspected but apparently never proved. The grave was identified by a metal plaque which had been affixed to the coffin. Earlier, a list of the names of nine persons known to have been buried in the cemetery between 1876 and 1894 was prepared by Mr A.

C. Loach, honorary field officer of the Canterbury regional committee of the Historic Places Trust. The discovery of the extra grave dating from 1862 has cleared up for Mr Loach one mystery about the cemetery. An acre of land was given to the Methodist Church in 1861 by Mr Thomas Stubbs, a relation of Abraham Stubbs whose grave has just been found. The Church sold threequarters of this acre of-land in 1871 when a new chapel was built on another site. The earliest recorded burial traced before this week’s discovery had been in 1876. Mr Loach had been puzzled why the Church had retained the quarter-acre as a cemetery when it shifted

the site of its chapel. It appears now that the quar-ter-acre was retained because Abraham Stubbs had already been buried in the grounds of the original chapel. The land was used subsequently as a cemetery, between 1876 and 1894, even though the chapel was now sited elsewhere.. The archaeologists are continuing their excavations on the site and will make a report to the Church authorities once their work is completed and all the riemains have been properly exhumed. The remains are being transferred to another cemetery so that the Methodist Church can sell the land. .~ ” •