Dust to Dust

Early for a meeting in Chester i had a stroll round one of my regular haunts, the ruins of the early medieval St Johns Church, just outside the city walls.

Its a strange place, after 450 years of active service one end of the building was chopped off in 1581 when a new east wall was built. This redundant piece was then left a bit out on its own, added to in different times but eventually left to go to ruin.

Anyway, in the 19th century they excavated and found this medieval oak coffin with the inscription "Dust to Dust" inside it and bizarrely decided to build it into the arch. I think its really cool that its shaped inside but slightly disturbed that it looks like the occupant tried to claw their way out!

Beautiful place though :)