2-667-945 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

Crypt, St Leonard's Church, Hythe, Kent, c1900. This image shows the ossuary, or bone store, in the vaulted ambulatory beneath the chancel of the church. The space had been used to store skulls and other bones disturbed during building work or when new graves were dug. Some 10,000 bones, including around 2000 skulls, dating from the medieval period were arranged on shelves or stacked in piles. The ossuary had long attracted visitors, and the photograph shows advertisements for guides written by the vicar, and a table with what appears to be a visitors' book and a donations box. Albumen print.