News / Old City
‘Human bones’ dumped in skip by builders
When Kat North looked at items in a skip that police had originally discounted as being human bones, she wasn’t so sure they were right so she called them back again to Broad Street in the Old City.
On the police’s second inspection, they agreed with Kat that the items an officer had first thought were pieces of wood did indeed look human-like enough to merit a cordon and two officers standing guard.
What are believed to be the bones had come from work being carried out in the basement of a building on nearby All Saints Lane, just the width of an alleyway away from the historic St Nicholas Church.
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For former archaeology student Kat this was a clue as to their provenance; with the bones perhaps from a charnel pit containing the re-interred remains of previously disturbed graves.
These bones could possibly have belonged to ancient parishioners of St Nicholas Church, originally dating back to the twelfth century; or St Werburgh’s Church, of medieval origins, which was on nearby Corn Street before being removed brick by brick in 1878 and rebuilt on Mina Road, giving the area formerly known as Baptist Mills its current moniker.
The skip where the possible bones were dumped is almost outside Full Court Press cafe, where Kat’s husband Mat is the owner, and where the 37-year-old marketing manager was about to have her morning cup of coffee at on Thursday.
“The PC came in to talk to us as someone had reported human remains in the skip,” Kat told Bristol24/7. “He said he’d had a look but thought it was wood so nothing to worry about.”
“He left and I got my coffee and thought I’d have a nosey. The builder had just been and dumped another load from a wheelbarrow and I looked in and saw what I thought might be a human femur.
One of the possible human bones in the skip that Kat North called the police to investigate – photo by Kat North
“The more I looked the more bones I could see, mostly long bones from arms and upper legs – though I could see what looked like a radius and a shin bone, as well as broken bits of bone.
“I called 101, got the police out, who spoke to the builder and got them to stop.”
Full Court Press barista Sam Ellis, 25, said: “A police car stopped down the road with sirens on. The policeman got a bone out of the skip, bashed it on the side and said: ‘That’s wood,’ and drove off.”
Sam added: “The policeman walked off laughing saying: ‘It’s just wood.’ The guy who dumped it said he was working on renovations nearby.
“When he was digging it out it was clumped together. He thought it was pipes sticking out. When he threw it in, all the soil fell off and we saw it was bones.”
On Thursday morning, builders were still working at 6 All Saints Lane, most recently Rodney King & Partners solicitors, with three bags of rubble in a wheelbarrow containing similar material covered in red clay that had previously been transported to the skip on Broad Street.
“It is human remains then?” a man at the door of the building said when asked by Bristol24/7 if he knew anything the contents of the skip, before being told to shut the door by his boss.
The building on All Saints Lane where the detritus dumped in the skip came from – photo by Josiah Wong
Wheelbarrows outside All Saints House – photo by Josiah Wong
The contents of two of the bags in one of the wheelbarrows – photo by Josiah Wong
Once bones believed to be human have been found, the police must be called. Experts are then often asked to determine whether the bones – if they are indeed human bones – were from recent times and so be “a forensic case of interest to the police” or more ancient.
Bones of antiquity then fall under the remit of the county archaeologist, who decides who will examine them further. The Burial Act of 1857 dictates that whoever exhumes human remains must have the correct licence to do so. All human remains must also be reported to the coroner’s office.
A spokesperson for Avon & Somerset Police said: “We were called to reports of a suspicious item – possibly a bone or bones – this morning at about 8.50am in a builder’s skip in Broad Street.
“The skip is being used by builders who are renovating a property in nearby All Saints Lane area, where it is believed there was a cemetery.
“The items will be forensically examined.”
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