Amazing Discovery in Lambeth
Remains of five 'lost' Archbishops of Canterbury found - BBC News
The remains of five Archbishops of Canterbury have been found beneath a medieval parish church next to Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury's official London residence.
Builders renovating the Garden Museum, housed at the deconsecrated church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, found a hidden crypt containing 30 lead coffins.
Site manager Karl Patten said: "We discovered numerous coffins - and one of them had a gold crown on top of it".
The remains date back to the 1660s.
Mr Patten, from the building contractors Rooff, said his team were exposing the ground, lifting the flagstones in the church, when they uncovered an entry to what looked like a tomb.
They used a mobile phone camera on the end of a stick to search the void.
King James Bible
Two of the coffins had nameplates - one for Richard Bancroft (in office from 1604 to 1610) and one for John Moore (1783 to 1805) whose wife, Catherine Moore, also had a coffin plate.
Bancroft was the chief overseer of the publication of a new English translation of the Bible - the King James Bible - which began in 1604 and was published in 1611.
According to Mr Mount, St Mary-at-Lambeth's records have since revealed that a further three archbishops were probably buried in the vault: Frederick Cornwallis (in office 1768 to 1783), Matthew Hutton (1757 to 1758) and Thomas Tenison (1695 to 1715).
