MEDIEVAL bones have been reburied at a Winchester churchyard after they were exhumed nearly two years ago for research.

The bones of six individuals, and some others that could not be identified, were buried during a short ceremony at St Bartholomew’s Church in Hyde on Saturday (October 25).

It was thought, at one stage, the bones belonged to King Alfred but further tests proved the bones dated back to between the 12th and 15th centuries.

Rector Rev Cliff Bannister was joined by the Rt Rev David Williams, the Bishop of Basingstoke, and other members of the community including Nick Thorpe of the University of Winchester’s archaeology department, and Edward Fennell, the founder of Hyde 900.

Mr Bannister said: “It was just 19 months ago that a few of us stood on a frightfully cold day and members of the archaeology team, led by Katie Tucker, to begin the exhumation of these graves. We know they would have come from Hyde Abbey.”

The unmarked grave’s headstone will soon have new lettering so that future generations can clearly identify its contents.

“One doesn’t undertake an exhumation likely and I’m grateful to the members of Hyde 900 who led all the research,” Mr Bannister added. “We’re also very grateful to the University of Winchester archaeology department.”

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Mr Williams marked the moment with a prayer and thanked individuals for their work to identify the bones.

“We have interred members of this community from some 800 years ago,” he said. “Heavenly Father we thank you for each individual.

“For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust. As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.”

The ceremony coincided with the annual King Alfred Weekend which marks the 1,115th anniversary of his death.

Mr Fennell said: “We set [the group] up in 2006 in the build up to the anniversary of Alfred the Great. At the time we had a big festival but such was the momentum and there was such interest locally that we kept it going.

“There’s been speculation for many years about who’s in the graves. We knew we hadn’t found King Alfred but we wanted to try to establish who these people were. The search goes on.”