Researchers claim to be closing in on the final resting place of King Alfred the Great, with a 20-yard radius pinpointed beneath a car park in Winchester. Graham Phillips, who has spent 13 years investigating the monarch's burial site, believes this location is a crucial step forward in what has become a century-long quest.
The search for King Alfred's remains began over a hundred years ago and has seen several failed excavations, including one by antiquarian John Mellor in 1866. Initially buried at Winchester's Old Minster, the king's body was moved to the New Minster and then again to Hyde Abbey, where he was interred with his wife and son in front of the high altar.
Following Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, the abbey was demolished. In 2013, archaeologists from the University of Winchester carbon-dated bones that had previously been believed to be King Alfred's, but these were found to be over two centuries too late to match his death in 899.
Phillips discovered an 1800 journal article detailing a lead-lined coffin and bones unearthed by prisoners during work on the prison grounds next to the abbey ruins. The area was landscaped into a garden, and it is Phillips' theory that this event led to a further relocation of Alfred's remains in 1788.
Noting a parallel with the discovery of Richard III under a car park in Leicester, Phillips advocates for a non-invasive ground-penetrating radar survey before any excavation. The University of Winchester acknowledges public interest but has not reviewed or endorsed Phillips' specific claim independently.
The search for King Alfred's resting place continues to captivate both locals and historians alike, with the possibility that his remains lie mere yards beneath a busy car park in the heart of Winchester city centre.