Church of St. Andrew, Bugthorpe

It has been suggested that burying someone face down is a sign of disrespect for the deceased and a way to possibly humiliate them. One such burial may have taken place in Bugthorpe (or Buckthorpe) Churchyard according to Rev. J. W. Appleford in his 1880 book ‘A Brief Account of the Parish and Church of St. Andrew, Buckthorpe’. ‘On the north the parishioners have an almost insuperable objection to any interment taking place. A late sexton once made a curious discovery when digging a grave. About four feet below the surface he found an entire skeleton without any trace of the body having been buried in a coffin. But the remarkable point is that it was laid face downwards and that the feet lay to the west instead of as usual to the east, the head being to the east, entirely reversing the common mode of burial. There was probably some ecclesiastical reason for its occupying this unusual position, though what that reason was it is, of course, quite impossible to say.’