I can't help wondering if they were both alive when they were buried or if one partner chose lie down and to link hands with their departed love. Perhaps they asked that they could be buried this way after their demise, although duel burials were quite rare back then.
University of Leicester archaeologists believe the pair have been holding hands in the Chapel of St Morrell in Hallaton for around 700 years.
For the last four years, the archaeologists and volunteers from the Hallaton Fieldwork Group have excavated the 14th century pilgrimage site. As well as the skeleton couple, they have revealed the full chapel plan and uncovered walls, a tiled floor as well as fragments of stone masonry, wall plaster, tiles and lead from the windows. To indicate when the chapel was in use, a number of silver pennies dating between the 12th and the 16th centuries have also been found on the site.
The team believes the chapel may have been an area of pilgrimage. Alternatively, society might have refused them burial in the main church not far away, perhaps because they were criminals, foreigners or sick.
Roman archeology found beneath the medieval chapel suggests that the hilltop has been a special place for over 2,000 years.
Some relationships last a lifetime. We pledge in our marriage vows to stay with our partner through sickness and in health, for better or worse until death parts us. The romantic notion is rarely fulfilled in these modern times when divorce is easy and emotions fickle. And yet, most people admire the lucky couples who have remained together their whole lives.
Excerpt from Everlasting Love
ARTIST: U2
Like the sun it shines
Endlessly it shines
You always will be mine
Eternal love
Whenever love went wrong
Ours would still be strong
We'd have our own
Everlasting love
I'm lucky to have found a good man who loves me no matter what over the 25 years we've been married. We have arranged a joint grave. It's not macabre. Just forward planning. There's nothing more certain than death. I like to think our spirit lives on.
Do you think relationships last beyond death?