Leicester Cathedral: Amount of graves found delays restoration

Work on the £12.7m project began in January 2022

Restoration work at Leicester's cathedral has been delayed due to the large amount of historical graves uncovered.

Workers said the sheer amount of archaeological finds - including more than 1,000 graves - meant they were now six months behind schedule.

The project team said they aimed to reopen in November, with a visitor centre following next June.

The work is part of a £12.7m project which began in January 2022.

Work on the Old Song School site has uncovered around 1,000 burials

The graves were found on the site of the Old Song School

Simon Bentley, the project director, said putting up the scaffolding inside the cathedral alone took several weeks.

He said work was well under way on the visitor and learning centre on the site of the cathedral's Old Song School.

But when it was demolished, archaeologists moved in and found more than they expected.

The erection of scaffolding inside the cathedral took weeks to complete

In April last year, excavators said they had found 125 burials but this has now increased tenfold.

Matthew Morris, from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS), said he was taken aback by the amount of graves uncovered.

"Given the scale of it, and it's not actually a huge area that we've been looking at, the [amount] of human remains has been a bit of a surprise," he said.

"There's over 1,000 burials in a 14x14 metre area. [This] is an incredible density of human remains in the churchyard, which has probably been in use for over 1,000 years."

Project director Mr Bentley said the delays were down to the amount of excavation work

Mr Bentley added that potential delays weren't "ideal" but the finished product would be worth the wait.

"The restoration works will transform the cathedral as we know it - it will be a cathedral which will be completely renewed, refreshed and restored for future generations," he said.

"We're about six months behind, which is unfortunate and it's causing us big challenges.

"But that was because of the unexpected nature of the archaeology work and just how much the archaeologists have uncovered."