AFTER reposing in the ground for up to 800 years one could expect to be left to RIP.

But not if your last resting place coincided with the choice of site for Hereford County Hospital.

Over the years the Hereford Times has told many tales of skeletons being exposed as old buildings were demolished and fresh excavations needed to create a bigger and better hospital to meet the needs of the modern sick.

The revelations were never surprising bearing in mind the site is the former home of Hereford workhouse, and before that the priory home of an ecclesiastical order.

Now it has happened again.

For the sake of a new road, and a drain to serve it, being punched through the hospital grounds the earthly remains of more of our Hereford forefathers have come into the light again.

Centuries old

This time 17 skeletons have been found, one of them in a stone lined grave.

Diggers unearthed them just below the surface on the site of the old physiotherapy department.

As archaeologists set to work to clear the soil and expose the skeletons there was no hiding place for the men buried there some time between the years 1143 and 1539.

Archaeologist Catherine Crooks who has been working for Archaeological Excavations on the site for many years says the find is significant.

Apart from the skeletons the diggers unearthed pieces of stone which could be part of the St Guthlac's Priory the home of an order of monks.

It is the only time such stone remains have been found, giving archaeologists the first indication of the actual site of the priory despite 20 years of searching.

Catherine says the stone indicates a high order of building, probably the Priory church.

The skeletons have been found in rows and in close proximity to the walls.

This could suggest they were the 'posh' or high ranking members of the religious order because they were nearest to the wall - even in more recent times it is noticed in churches throughout the county the most important dignitaries of a locality are buried nearest to church walls.

According to the archaeologists all the skeletons, except one, a child, appear to be of elderly men.

More time, and research, needs be spent on trying to discover the likely date of the newly found stone but it is unlikely that personal details will be unearthed about the skeletons, once flesh and blood and part of someone's family.

Meanwhile, the new road to serve the hospital and the drain beneath it cannot wait - work must carry on.

This week, seven of the skeletons, whose bones are crumbly and could easily disintegrate will be taken, with great care, from the ground. Their next resting place will be in the churchyard at Belmont Abbey.

For the others it is back to where they belong.

None of them are in the way of the route of the drain so they will be covered up with soil and stone and the road built over them.

Back to RIP, away from the prying eyes of TV and Press cameras.

At least for the time being, but how many centuries from now before they are exposed to the light of day again, perhaps for even a more ignominious reason than a new drain?