Bones on market site ‘are historic’
HUMAN remains found on the site of a new outdoor market are thought to have been buried in the grounds of an old chapel which once stood there.
Workers on the multi-million pound market in Wolverhampton made the grim discovery last week.
The scene in Snow Hill was sealed off by police while forensic investigations were carried out.
City of Wolverhampton Council said: “It is believed the remains are associated with an 18th century chapel that once sat at the Cleveland Street location.
“Work was temporarily suspended on the site while the council liaised with the authorities.”
The council said only one set of remains was found and parts have now been sent to the University of Dundee for tests.
The council is making an application to the Ministry of Justice for the appropriate exhumation licence, which could take several weeks to be granted. The discovery was made at the site of a former Netto supermarket which was flattened in 2016 to make way for the market.
The land has since been used as a car park, before contractors moved in last October to begin work on the much-anticipated £4.9 million project.
The new market will have 20 cabins and 48 stalls, fronting Cleveland Street.
It is not the first time contractors have discovered human remains while carrying out work in the region. In 2014, workers carrying out excavations in Castle Street, Dudley, found skeletal remains.
Police later deemed the find “non-suspicious”, with the remains thought to be from a former burial ground used by the nearby Church of St Edmund.
And between 1997 and 2001, during excavation work in Birmingham city centre to make way for the new Bullring, workers made a macabre discovery.
They discovered the bodies of a middle-aged woman and a young man, thought to be aged between 18 and 22.