Publications
The leper hospital of St James and St Mary Magdalene, Chichester, by John Magilton and Frances Lee, published 1 October 1989 in Burial Archaeology: Current research, methods and developments (edited by John Bintliff, Frances Lee and Charlotte A. Roberts, pp.249-265, British Archaeological Reports, ISBN-10: 0860546713 & ISBN-13: 9780860546719)
Roman Chichester and Fishbourne, by John Magilton and David Rudkin, published 1 January 1999 in An Historical Atlas of Sussex (pp.26-27, Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, ISBN-10: 1860771122 & ISBN-13: 9781860771125) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14026][Lib 18777] & The Keep [LIB/501686][LIB/508903] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Midhurst, by John Magilton and Spencer Thomas, published 2001 (148 pp., Chichester District Council, ISBN-10: 0850170052 & ISBN-13: 9780850170054) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
Fernhurst Furnace, and other Industrial Sites in the Western Weald, by John Magilton, published 2003 (Chichester District Council, ISBN-10: 0850170133 & ISBN-13: 9780850170139) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14994] & West Sussex Libraries
Lepers Outside the Gate: Excavations at the Cemetery of the Hospital of St James and St Mary Magdalene, Chichester, 1986-93, by John Magilton, Frances Lee and Anthea Boyston, published 31 December 2008 (294 pp., Council for British Archaeology, ISBN-10: 1902771745 & ISBN-13: 9781902771748) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
Abstract:Founded as a leper hospital for men in the 12th century, this institution admitted women and children towards the end of the Middle Ages and survived the Reformation by becoming an almshouse for the sick poor. The report includes a discussion of leprosy and contemporary attitudes to it, medieval hsopitals and cemeteries and the provision of charitable care. The cemetery provided the largest sample of skeletons from an English medieval leper hospital to date, and one of the most significant assemblages of leper graves in Europe.
Review by Liz Somerville in Sussex Past & Present no. 119, December 2009:I found myself much better able to appreciate the detail in the report after reading the excellent account of the site by Magilton and Lee in a recent issue of "British Archaeology," and the inclusion of such an overview would have been very welcome. The main weakness in the report is the almost inevitable one of a lack of integration. This shows in a lot of ways, from the lack of an overall index to the tendency of the osteoarchaeologists to deal only with their particular aspect of the bones. All too often I got the impression that only the editors had read all the chapters, and their firm grasp of the overall picture comes through both in the detailed description of the cemetery by Magilton, where plots of the graves are used to effectively summarise the data and also in the final discussion by Magilton and Lee.
Undoubtedly the Chichester site is an important one and the bioarchaeological data from it will continue to be analysed. In particular, because there is continuity here from a leper hospital to post-medieval almshouse it will continue to figure in the debate about the end of the leprosy epidemic in post-medieval Europe.
Undoubtedly the Chichester site is an important one and the bioarchaeological data from it will continue to be analysed. In particular, because there is continuity here from a leper hospital to post-medieval almshouse it will continue to figure in the debate about the end of the leprosy epidemic in post-medieval Europe.
William Sabatier (1753-1826): Chichester's first field archaeologist, by John Magilton, published 2012 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 150, article, pp.185-192) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18615] & The Keep [LIB/500368] & S.A.S. library View Online
Abstract:William Sabatier's 1798 Description of the Roman military works in the neighbourhood of Chichester has a strong claim to be one of the first proper archaeological landscape studies. Although not by any means the first to describe or survey the entrenchments and Roman roads in the vicinity of Chichester, Sabatier was the first to undertake field survey and to describe the results in detail, and the first to illustrate them on a large-scale map. His identity, however, has remained something of a mystery. How could such a gifted fieldworker have proved to be otherwise so anonymous? Where did he develop his skills, and what was his connection with Chichester? Surely 'Sabatier' must be a pseudonym! This paper identifies the man and reveals the family connections and the career that led him to a five-week 'explorement' of the archaeology around Chichester in September and October 1797.
A late Roman "Hall" at Batten Hanger, West Sussex, by James Kenny, Malcolm Lyne, John Magilton and Paul Buckland, published November 2016 in Britannia (vol. 47, article, pp.193-207) View Online
Abstract:Excavation of the latest surviving structures of the villa at Batten Hanger in West Sussex indicates that a large aisled building was demolished in the late fourth or fifth century and replaced by a large hall 31.6 m long by 11.5 m wide, orientated approximately east-west. The survival of pad stones shows this space to have been divided into seven bays, with the more westerly bays screened off by a cross wall. The east wall of the building had collapsed outwards and was largely complete. A coin of Valentinian III suggests that occupation continued at least to the middle of the fifth century. The Supplementary Material available online (http://journals.cambridge.org/bri) contains a detailed presentation of the coin hoard and the pottery assemblages.