A GIANT WARRIOR

Shannon News, 26 October 1926, Page 4

A GIANT WARRIOR

FOUII-CKXTURY-OLD COFFIN IN NEW JFOREST Three coffins, one of which contains the skeleton, of what is believed to have been a soldier killdd during the Wars of the Roses, have been uncovered by an .archaeologist in the ruina of Beaulieu Abbey, in the heart of the New Forest, states a special correspondent of the. 'Daily Express.' Mr. B. G. Lampard Vachell, or Pembroke College,, Cambridge, the thirty-three year-old' Welsh hockey international captain, and his assistant made the discovery when digging on the site of the- old church. The abbey was founded in 1204 by King John in, says local legend, a penitential moment after a night of remorse, in which lie dreamed that thirty monks of the Cistercian order were' 'flogging him unmercifully with scourges and rods." The abbey was destroyed by the less superstitious Henry VIII. in 1539. Hundreds of visitors, including many American tourists, have visited this Luzor .of Hampshire since the coffins were uncovered. Accommodation at the only hotel in the village' has been booked up "indefinitely" by archaeological experts. , .I' found Mr. Vachell examining some glazed tiling that had formed the floor of the church. This was in excellent condition, and the Rev. P. B. Clayton, pastor of Toe H and an authority on old church tilings, said that similar specimens could be found only at Westminster Abbe5 r . Mr. Vachell pointed to the three uncovered graves. The two coffins on the outside were of stone, and contained skeletons of two men. The middle one-was of wood. .It lay 7ft 6in below the surface.

"This coffin," said Mr. Vachell, "is made of oak, and it has Aveathered the centuries well. It is Gft Gin long and 2ft. nin wide. The records of Beaulieu Abbey Avere destroyed, and it is impossible to state at the moment the exact age of the skeletons The middle coffin was certainly used for the burial of a man of great stature. He must have been more tha;i 6ft,. Sin in height, and his other measurements Avere proportionate." Professor Freeman has examined this skeleton of a medieval Goliath, and estimates its age at more than 400 years. Other experts will also examine it. The skeleton Is.believed to have been that of a wai'rior Avho met his death in the Wars of the Roses. The skull has a hole at the top. and it is believed that this Avas caused by an arroAv or a spear. The first of the stone coffins to be unearthed avus only a few inches under the surface; the other was 2J ft beloAV the ground level. The discOA r ery of the Avooden coffin has astonished the experts, since it was not known that wooden-coffins were use! as early as the fifteenth century.