Remains of 18th Century sailor to be buried

The remains of a sailor believed to be from an 18th Century shipwreck are set to be buried in a Cornish town.

Cornwall Council said the discovery was made on a cliff above Newtrain Bay in Trevone following a storm in November 2022.

It added radiocarbon dating indicated the remains were most likely from the 1700s and belonged to a man aged between 25 and 40 at the time of death.

The authority said Padstow Town Council had agreed to bury the remains in the town's cemetery during a reinternment service, at a plot with a specially-commissioned headstone in spring 2025.

The plot is set to be reused in the future for other storm-washed remains as and when they are discovered in the parish, the council said.

Councillor Martyn Alvey, portfolio holder for environment and climate change, said although nothing is known about the sailor's ship or the circumstances behind his death, the skeleton offers some clues about the man himself.

"This individual must have had immense upper body strength," he said.

"It was very, very clear that this person had worked in some way where he was doing a lot of pulling and lifting.

"There was an awful lot of wear on his teeth that would come from holding rope and cord, and of course, a mariner of the day would be doing a lot of rope work and using his teeth as a third hand. So that gives us pretty good assurance that [he was] indeed a mariner."

Mr Alvey said he was pleased to be able to give the sailor a proper burial service.

"In Cornwall we are all too familiar with tragedies off our coast and this is an opportunity for us to show our respects to all those lost at sea."

Money to pay for the headstone will be raised from local events and donations, with any additional funds set to be given to the RNLI, the authority said.

Artists have been asked to make an expression of interest to the council for the headstone by noon on 18 September.

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