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A 900-year-old door - once thought to be covered in human skin - has been identified as the oldest in the UK. Archaeologists discovered the oak door in Westminster Abbey was put in place in the 1050s, during the reign of the Abbey's founder, Edward the Confessor. It makes it the only surviving Anglo Saxon door in Britain. Tests also showed fragments of hide stuck to the door - which legend said was the skin of a punished man - was cow hide, said an Abbey spokeswoman. Stuff of legend Research on the door was funded by English Heritage and...

The bones of men who may have witnessed the tumultuous events of 1066 in Westminster Abbey, when one king was buried and two were crowned in a year, have been discovered along with the skeleton of a three-year-old child buried under Victorian drainage pipes just outside the wall of Poet's Corner... The skeleton, too small and poorly preserved to determine the sex without further scientific tests, appears to have been a person of some status, since he or she was buried in a wooden coffin, unlike some of the monks buried nearby. The child was far too young to be...

Archaeologists have uncovered a lost 13th century sacristy at Westminster Abbey along with the bones of hundreds of monks from an earlier burial ground. The team from Pre-Construct Archaeology had been doing work on the North Green of the abbey when they came across the Great Sacristy built by Henry III in the 1250s. An integral part of Henry’s Abbey, the sacristy was the only section of the 13th-century reconstruction which had been lost. Originally used to keep the sacred vestments and items prior to Mass, it was later converted into living quarters before being demolished in the 18th century....

King Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, has long been thought to have been killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. But British archaeologists are to test a theory he survived on the anniversary of the famous battle this Tuesday. The battle, on Oct. 14, 1066, marked a turning point in British history as the Normans conquered medieval England. There are different accounts of how he was killed, one of them pictured in the Bayeux Tapestry, which appears to have him gripping an arrow that had pierced his eye. Another account has Harold being killed by knights...

What is believed to be the original ancient burial tomb of one of our most revered British Saints, Edward the Confessor, has been discovered at Westminster Abbey – exactly 1,000 years after his birth. The discovery comes as part of an unprecedented archaeological study at the Abbey using radar that has also revealed a series of Royal tombs dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries and historical secrets related to Royal burials. Delighted archaeologists came across the forgotten, under-floor chambers when, as part of a larger conservation programme, they were using the latest ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technology to investigate...

Radar pinpoints tomb of King Edward the Confessor By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent (Filed: 02/12/2005) The ancient tomb of Edward the Confessor, one of the most revered of British saints, has been discovered under Westminster Abbey 1,000 years after his birth. The original burial chamber of the Anglo-Saxon king, who died in 1066, months before the invasion of William the Conqueror, was revealed by archaeologists using the latest radar technology. The existence of a number of royal tombs dating back to the 13th and 14th century was also discovered beneath the abbey, the venue for nearly all coronations since 1066....