The latest edition of Ledbury Parish Magazine has thrown light upon the opening of a possibly Royal tomb in St Michael and All Angels' Church.

The opening took place some 185 years ago - on Friday September 27, 1816 - when the tomb of a lady was located in the Clergy Vestry, says the magazine.

Tomb raiders had little doubt she was a Royal personage, although her identity still remains a mystery.

Nothing was discovered but a skull, two or three bones and the remains of the wooden coffin, which crumbled to dust on contact with the air.

An old steel chisel was found in the tomb, along with an antique plummet and part of a clay tobacco pipe.

This caused puzzlement, then as now, because the tomb is thought to be medieval, while tobacco only came to England in the Tudor period, perhaps some 300 years later.