Friday, April 26, 2013

Major new dig planned in Leicester's Richard III car park


At the start of the month I blogged about the plans of University of Leicester archaeologists to return to the car park where they found the skeleton of Richard III last September.

Now the Leicester Mercury has written more about this new dig:
A Victorian wall which separates the former Alderman Newton Grammar School from the city council car park, in New Street, will have to be removed in order for the second excavation to take place. As the wall is attached to the buildings at 6-8 St Martin's – which are listed – special consent needs to be sought for its removal. 
Mr Buckley said: "We're waiting to hear about listed building consent which would allow us to remove part of a wall which covers the friary church where the tomb is buried." 
The city council has said if consent is granted, it would reinstate much of the wall as part of its development of a Richard III visitor attraction in the former Alderman Newton Grammar School, due to open in time for the reinterment of the king at Leicester Cathedral next year.
Not only that. In the course of the dig that found Richard, the archaeologists found a 600-year-old, lead-lined stone coffin. For reasons the paper does not make entirely clear, they believe it houses the remains of a 14th-century knight, Sir William Moton:
The tomb is one of four graves discovered during the first Greyfriars dig and the university is in the process of applying for an exhumation order from the Ministry of Justice, which would detail where the remains are reinterred following the dig. 
The university team will examine in more detail the church of the friary, where the knight's tomb and Richard III's grave were found. 
There are plans to open up the site to members of the public and install a viewing platform for visitors to watch the team while they dig.
Meanwhile, on a planet far away, reports the Hinckley Times:
Relatives of Richard III are set to take their fight to have the king buried at York Minster to the courts.

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