Human bones found under London driveway could be Saxon, police say
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Version 0 of 1. Human remains found underneath a driveway in south London could belong to Saxons, it has emerged. It was feared the gruesome discovery could be evidence of a past murder and police were called in to investigate. But on Saturday the Metropolitan Police said detectives had passed the case to historians after the bones were dated to between 670 to 775AD. The Dark Ages had taken hold of Britain in the period as the newly-formed Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fought for supremacy. A police spokesman said: “The forensic report will be passed to English Heritage who have expressed further interest in the discovery as it is known that an ancient Saxon burial site is in the vicinity.” The family living at the home in Purley will be breathing a sigh of relief after weeks of living at a crime scene. Work on their driveway was stopped after landscape gardeners dug up the bones, including a human skull and a femur thought to have belonged to a small child. Alison Carpenter, 41, and her husband Michael, who live in the house with their four children, called the police straight away. Speaking to London Live, Mrs Carpenter said: “Yesterday morning [14 April] the diggers came and they started work. I had a phone call about half eleven to say 'err… we’ve found a skull, perhaps we ought to stop digging'.” Police sealed the area off and took the evidence away to be examined. Some neighbours already suspected that the bones were historical. “A neighbour down the road said perhaps it was somebody who had been buried as a result of the plague, other people are talking about Saxon burial grounds in the area,” Mrs Carpenter said.
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