The remains of King Alfred the Great, which had long been lost, have been discovered beneath a car park, according to investigators.
Alfred the Great, the only English monarch to carry this title, is widely recognized as a crucial ruler in the history of England, often credited as the country’s founder. Despite his significant contributions, the exact location of his burial had remained a mystery.
Renowned author and historical researcher Graham Phillips claims to have finally located Alfred’s grave after a 13-year search. The revelation is set to be unveiled in an upcoming episode of the British television show Weird Britain on Blaze TV, scheduled to air on Wednesday, July 8 at 9pm.
Phillips asserts that the burial site is situated just 20 yards away from a marker indicating the previous location of Alfred’s grave. Interestingly, similar to the discovery of Richard III, Alfred’s bones were found underneath a car park. Alfred passed away in 899, and his remains were relocated several times.
Initially laid to rest in Winchester Cathedral, Alfred’s bones were later transferred to Hyde Abbey in Winchester in 1110, where they were interred near the high altar alongside those of his wife and son. Unfortunately, the abbey was destroyed after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, leaving the site in ruins.
In 1866, during the construction of a workhouse on the premises, John Mellor, an English antiquarian, unearthed what he believed to be Alfred’s remains and reburied them at St. Bartholomew’s Church nearby. However, when archaeologists excavated and carbon-dated the bones from the churchyard in 2013, it was revealed that they dated over 200 years past Alfred’s death, sparking Phillips’ investigation.
Phillips expressed, “The bones found in St. Bartholomew’s churchyard were not Alfred’s. This led me to embark on a 13-year quest to uncover the truth.” It was previously assumed that Alfred’s bones were lost during the workhouse construction in the 1860s, with Winchester city council transforming the Hyde Abbey site into a garden, marked by stone slabs denoting the locations of Alfred’s supposed grave, and those of his family.
Phillips believes he has evidence suggesting that the bones of Alfred, his wife, and son had been relocated several decades before the 1860s. He noted, “In 1788, a prison was erected near the area, and the graves were converted into a garden for the warden’s residence. I am convinced that the original bones were moved at that time.”
In the late 1700s, English historian Henry Howard visited Richard Page, the warden overseeing the Hyde Abbey site’s developments, to obtain the pre-prison construction ruins’ plans. While searching for a copy of these plans at Cambridge University’s archives, Phillips made a remarkable discovery.
Graham continued, “Howard’s article on Hyde Abbey, published in Volume 13 of Archaeologia in 1800, mentions prisoners working on the warden’s garden unearthing bones that were reinterred nearby, complete with a map.”
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