HS2’s skeleton crew
45,000 bodies to be excavated on high-speed rail route – including Lord Byron’s old boxing coach
THE remains of an 18th century bare-knuckle boxer who trained Lord Byron are among those that archaeologists are hoping to find in the country’s largest ever excavation of bodies.
Around 45,000 are expected to be disinterred at historic sites along the 150-mile route of the HS2 line between London Euston and Birmingham.
More than 1,000 archaeologists will work on the £900million project to prepare the way for the highspeed train, at sites including a Wars of the Roses battleground and a Roman temple.
The largest dig will be at St James’s Gardens, a Georgian and Victorian burial ground near Euston station where tens of thousands of skeletons will be removed.
It is now a park but 60,000 people were buried there from 1790 to 1854. Although the headstones have been removed, many of the coffins will have a metal plate with the names of the deceased.
Helen Wass, head of heritage for HS2, said the skeleton bare-knuckle boxer Bill ‘The Terror’ Richmond was one of those expected to be dug up.
Richmond was born a slave in America on August 5, 1763, but came to Britain after British forces captured Staten Island in 1776.
Legend has it that his pugilistic talents were first noticed when, as a boy, he took on three soldiers who racially insulted him.
In Britain he gained fame as a boxer whose fans included George IV and Lord Byron, who sought him out as a teacher. He has been described as the country’s ‘first black sports star’.
Miss Wass said archaeologists hoped to learn more about him from his bones.
She told The Times: ‘Does he have any evidence of his trade on his body? We know he has an odd knee that apparently made him nimble in the ring. We will be looking for anything out of the ordinary like osteoporosis.’
Another notable body expected to be found is that of Captain Matthew Flinders, the first person to circumnavigate Australia – he is credited with giving the country its name.
The remains of political and religious activist Lord George Gordon are also expected to be uncovered. He instigated the anti- Catholic Gordon Riots in 1780 when a mob marched on Parliament.
Another significant burial ground being dug up is the former Park Street cemetery in Birmingham, where around 6,000 people were laid to rest between 1810 and 1873.
All of the bodies that are exhumed in the project will be reburied on consecrated ground at as yet undecided locations across the country.
In total, archaeologists will explore more than 60 sites on the HS2 route before work on the rail line can begin.
One is Edgcote battleground in Northamptonshire, the site of a major battle in the Wars of the Roses in 1469. Another is Grim’s Ditch, a 17mile Bronze Age ditch system stretching across the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire.