A most interesting find occurred in digging a grave in the churchyard about 1860. The gravedigger, having cut extra deep, struck the top of a Roman stone coffin, and called in a neighbour to help him lift the massive stone cover, on raising which the men, for only a few seconds, saw within the coffin the perfect body of a young woman whose funeral garment was clasped by a Roman brooch. After a few moments' exposure to the air, all collapsed into fine dust, to the great astonishment and alarm of the men. This coffin is now in the cloisters of Lincoln cathedral; the brooch is now in the possession of Mr E Wilmhurst, of Retford, to whom I am indebted for much of the above information. (1)

<1> Thoroton Society, 1909, TTS, pp 35-6 (Published document). SNT336.