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A lost tomb containing the graves of five Archbishops of Canterbury has been uncovered under the floor in St Mary-at-Lambeth Church, London.
These days the church is used as the “Garden Museum”.
It is located next door to Lambeth Palace, the home of the current Archbishop of Canterbury.
After cutting a hole in the medieval church floor, workers were surprised to see coffins beneath them.
“We got a camera on the end of a stick and discovered numerous coffins and one of them had a gold crown on top of it,” said Karl Patten who was the site manager of renovations on the de-consecrated church.
Christopher Woodward, director of the Garden Museum, said the multi-million renovation works were going “incredibly smoothly” until he received an urgent call from Mr Patten.
Rather than the trouble he expected to encounter as a result of the frantic call, Woodward said he was amazed at the find.
Investigations have found one of the five was Richard Bancroft, who became archbishop in 1604.
Bancroft chaired the committee that wrote the King James Bible, which was published in 1611.
Bancroft and John Moore (Archbishop from 1783 to 1805) were identified by the name plates on the coffins.
The museum said they believe Frederick Cornwallis (Archbishop from 1768 to 1783), Matthew Hutton (1757 to 1758) and Thomas Tenison (1695 to 1715) are also inside.
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