The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III's Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds (14 page)

Day Four

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

After breakfast at the Belmont Hotel with the DSP team we’re on site by 7.45 a.m. This will become our daily routine for the dig, which is feeling more and more like
Groundhog Day,
the film in which the same day is constantly repeated and which became a running joke among us. I didn’t help by always eating the same breakfast. The social workers are heading to work, threading their way through the car park and asking if we’ve found him yet. Ricardians Dr John Ashdown-Hill and Annette Carson have completed their filmed interviews at the dig for the documentary and have headed back home. They’ll return at the end of the two-week project. It’s odd not having them here and I feel strangely isolated.

Archaeologist Martyn Henson is working in Trench Two. Here smaller debris is still being removed in many areas but it looks like there is a clear robbed-out wall running north–south at the northern end and an existing wall running north–south at the southern end. Between the walls, the exposed mortar flooring is showing signs of diagonally laid square tiles. Their imprint has formed a diamond pattern, almost Jacquard in nature, and quite stunning. Pieces of broken local medieval stone tiling and common green ware pottery have been found in the spoil heaps so it seems we are at the medieval level across the site. A shout goes up. In the rubble layer of Trench Two, Senior Supervisor Leon Hunt has found the most beautiful half tile, in almost pristine condition. He and Morris believe the exquisite outline, which shows the feet of a bird, might be the eagle design from the Wessex style of tile, a well-known medieval pattern, probably made locally. Also, poking through in the central area of Trench Two, and within the mortared flooring, is a strange anomaly. It looks to me like the top of a medieval tomb as its top is rounded, smooth like alabaster. Morris doesn’t think this is likely but as it is cleaned its smoothness becomes more apparent, as does its depth.

In Trench One, Tony Gnanaratnam is uncovering more of the strange low stone wall without any foundations that was found on day two and is perplexing Richard Buckley. It seems to have a flat top with a curving lip structure over one side. Buckley thinks it could be a bench and wonders what this may tell us about the site, and where we are. He appears to be convinced we’re in the Greyfriars precinct. Gnanaratnam has also uncovered what looks to be a robbed-out wall running east–west that might connect with the northernmost end of Trench Two.

At 4 p.m. we pack up and head back to the hotel. It’s been a good day. We’ve discovered medieval walls and tiles, and it seems that we are indeed somewhere in the Greyfriars precinct.

Day Five

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

It’s raining, pouring down. We do what little we can but by 11 a.m. with the forecast showing no sign of any let-up, it’s confirmed: rain has stopped play. I’m concerned about the time (and money) we’re losing but site director Mathew Morris is reassuring. He reckons we’ll be able to make it up in the coming days when the weather is expected to be much drier, and he can always draft in extra help to get us back on track if need be.

Happy with that, I meet up for lunch at Piero’s with Sue Wells, joint secretary of the Richard III Society, and Sally Henshaw, secretary of the local Leicestershire Branch. We discuss King Richard’s banner and standard currently being designed by the College of Arms in London, which will be presented to Leicester Cathedral by the Richard III Society to mark the search for King Richard. If Richard is found, it is hoped the flags will hang above his tomb.

Day Six

Thursday, 30 August 2012

It’s 8 a.m. and Ricardian Karen Ladniuk, a lawyer from Brazil who donated to the International Appeal that saved the dig, has flown in. Under the supervision of archaeologists Heidi Addison and Pauline Houghton, she’ll help clean Trench Two. Ladniuk is thrilled and within half an hour her keen eyes spot a tiny silver Roman coin.

By the end of the morning, Trench Two is cleaned and revealing much more information. By chance, the trench has been dug along what could be a long north–south corridor. After measuring the small (two-metre) space between its outer edges, Buckley thinks it may be one of the friary’s cloister walks. If so, he’s not sure whether it’s on the western or eastern side of the square courtyard or ‘cloister garth’ it would have bordered. Moreover, it’s still unclear where the Greyfriars Church might be located in relation to it as, lacking any uniform pattern, medieval churches could be sited to the south or north of the cloister.

The smooth anomaly in the central area of Trench Two, which I hoped could be a tomb top, appears to be a stone step, its roundness, the archaeologists are hypothesizing, intended to prevent the barefooted friars from stubbing their toes. It makes a lovely story. It’s strangely compelling to touch something that may have been trodden on in Richard’s day. None of the team has ever come across a step like this before, so we decide to christen it the Leicester Step.

At the southern end of Trench Two the medieval wall has survived there partially intact above floor level, another rare discovery in Leicester, I’m told. I ask Buckley about it but he’s at a loss to explain why this wall hasn’t been robbed. He then shows me what looks like the remains of a doorway that leads through it from west to east. Slowly but surely Greyfriars is coming to life.

In Trench One it looks as if our strange wall without a foundation is a bench built up against a (robbed) wall, which could have been inside a room. By lunchtime careful key-hole investigation of the robbed wall has found a second, similar bench, with evidence of floor tiling between them. These parallel benches are a major breakthrough, giving Richard Buckley and his team an important clue as to which part of the friary has been found. The benches suggest a place where people could have sat and talked, which Morris explains in a medieval friary would have been the chapter house. As the chapter house is normally built off the eastern side of a square cloister, this would make the corridor joining it, over in the northern end of Trench Two, the eastern cloister walk. To confirm this, the team will need to expose more of the southern end of Trench One to see if it reveals another east–west robbed-out wall, running parallel to the more northern one. They will also have to extend the northern end of Trench Two slightly to see if this more northern wall does travel east–west and intersect the trench at this point.

To the north of the chapter house, the ground in the northern end of Trench One is too disturbed for any guesswork as to which side the church might be on, with this area, potentially, outside the friary buildings. I wander back to see Jon Coward in the northern end of Trench One for the millionth time. It’s hot, thirsty work and he’s got some way to go to clear the large quantities of heavy rubble. Having looked again at the maps of the area, Richard Buckley has confirmed that the coal cellars built here by the Victorians for their outhouse are making it nigh on impossible to interpret the archaeology. It also doesn’t help that a later garage, with a possible inspection pit, had been built here in the 1930s, its massive concrete walls still visible, and immovable.

Stopping for a moment to take a drink, Jon Coward tells me that he’s found something, and points to a small area in Trench One directly behind where he is working. I can see a short red-bricked Victorian wall, forming a small square area. ‘Smell it,’ he says. I jump down into the trench and take a good sniff. It’s a bit pungent. ‘A Victorian lavatory,’ he says, and shows me where its doorway would have been. I’m shocked that we can still smell it. He laughs and says if we dig down we’ll probably find what’s causing it! I make a face and try to make light of it but, climbing out of the trench, it cuts me to the core. As I watch Coward back at work, I look at the Victorian lavatory. It’s directly over a wall, and only inches from the human remains, the lower leg bones, discovered on the first day of the dig. A final resting-place next to a leaking Victorian lavatory is not fit for anybody, never mind a king.

Tony Gnanaratnam is continuing his trowel work in the southern end of Trench One and shows me his latest find, a beautiful piece of stained-glass window. I ask if we can be sure it’s medieval. It will have to be properly cleaned but Gnanaratnam, one of the most experienced archaeologists on site, thinks it looks like it. In no time the find has drawn a crowd of archaeologists. Stained glass means a high-status building, which could be the Greyfriars Church. Jon Coward also has a new find. In the rubble he’s been clearing he has uncovered a carved masonry mullion, with a slot. Richard Buckley and Mathew Morris explain that the slot would have held the lead, which would have held the window, perhaps of stained glass. There’s a tangible feeling of excitement as the team heads back to work and I wonder what else Trench One might reveal. I don’t have long to wait.

In the afternoon Jon Coward’s work on the massive rubble heap with voids is just about done. Beneath the rubble is a massive robbed-out wall, its shadow an enormous dark stain in the ground. It seems about 1.5 metres thick. I look at Mathew Morris. ‘It’s big enough,’ he says. ‘It could be the southern wall of the church.’ Jon Coward is smiling, the sweat dripping off him, and I hug him. Richard Buckley checks the area and instructs Coward to clean it up as much as possible. He too is smiling.

‘It might be the church,’ he says. ‘Let’s see what tomorrow brings.’

At 4 p.m. we down tools, and I tell the DSP team that I’ll walk back today instead of taking a lift in their vehicle. I want time to think. As I head to the hotel through the New Walk, a beautiful tree-lined Georgian avenue that bisects Leicester’s city centre streets, for the first time I’m happy in the knowledge that the search for Richard was the right thing to do. And I know that whether it is him, or someone else, we can’t leave the remains where they are.

Day Seven

Friday, 31 August 2012

I arrive to see a truck at the northern end of the car park preparing to remove some of the modern infill to give us more room and help safety on site. I check the area where the bones are, as I do every morning. And I’m shocked. The ground has been disturbed, someone’s been poking about. Security personnel Ken John and Luke Thompson check the CCTV. The only way in is over the high Victorian red-brick wall of the former grammar school, which is currently empty. The Social Services car park is locked each night. It doesn’t look like anything has been taken as the plastic sheeting covering the bones is still in place, but someone’s been looking. Has word got out?

It turns out there’s nothing on the CCTV except pigeons, but two or three of the big blocks of brick near the bones have been dislodged. A pigeon couldn’t do that. As we try to figure it out, one of the truck drivers comes over to say that earlier, he’d jumped into the trench and accidentally dislodged some of the stones there. I hope he hasn’t damaged anything. Although a relief, it’s a stern reminder to bring in the night security I’d budgeted for. Thompson tells me that rumours about bones being discovered are already doing the rounds of the social workers. The last thing we need is this news getting out.

Jon Coward is in the northern end of Trench One continuing his cleaning work. Tony Gnanaratnam is mapping out the southern end, recording all measurements and dimensions. He’ll then move into Trench Two and do the same there. These measurements will give Richard Buckley and his team a much better understanding of the buildings and spaces we’re looking at. I’m about to wander over to Trench Two when Gnanaratnam shows me what’s been found in the southern end of Trench One. When he was clearing the last of the rubble to try to locate a possible southern east–west robbed wall, he uncovered further pieces of window tracery. They’re stunning, almost intact. Mathew Morris confirms they’re medieval, and could be from the church. But there’s more: archaeologist Pauline Houghton has also found a medieval roof tile with a ridge crest. It’s damaged but still glazed, further denoting a high-status building, and its close proximity.

Richard Buckley is due for our on-site meeting, and I’m pacing up and down. We might have found a church wall, stained glass, window tracery and a glazed roof tile, which means the remains uncovered on the first day might be situated in the church itself. Buckley arrives, checks the finds, and we agree to dig Trench Three in the north of the site, in the former grammar school car park, directly adjacent to and east of Trench One. In a confined space, this trench will be twenty-five metres long. If Jon Coward’s wall is the only indication we have of the Greyfriars Church, then Trench Three will test if the massive robbed-out wall from Trench One can be picked up at the new position. Buckley tells me to keep my fingers crossed and hope for a positive result. We have one week left to dig.

He asks what I want to do with the human remains found on the first day of the dig as, without any archaeological evidence to give them some context, they are of no interest to him. He doesn’t know if they are a burial, but thinks their position could be in the nave and could belong to a friar. Buckley knows what my response will be and smiles, and as expected I say that I want the remains in Trench One exhumed. They’re beside my letter ‘R’. Buckley wants to wait and carry out some possible exhumations, should we find any more remains, in the former grammar school area to the east so asks if I have the funds to cover this one. I have nearly £800 left from the International Appeal, and ask if that will be enough. ‘More than enough,’ he says, and it’s agreed. Buckley will apply for the Exhumation Licence as soon as he’s back at his office. It’s a weekend so it won’t come through until Monday, 3 September. The excavator will then dig out a western slot over the remains both to see whether they are a complete burial and to aid the exhumation.

I ask about Harriet Jacklyn, the osteologist, who has been ill and is unavailable for the project. A replacement has been appointed and, although not quite as experienced as Jacklyn, is certainly up to the job. I suggest calling in a metal detector expert and Buckley agrees to contact Ken Wallace, a reliable and experienced professional.