Historian claims King Alfred's remains under Winchester car park

A historian claims he has located the final resting place of King Alfred the Great, one of England's most celebrated early monarchs, and it may be underneath a car park in Winchester.

Alfred, who ruled the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the late 9th century, is remembered for uniting the separate English kingdoms against Viking invaders. He died in 899 and was buried at the Hyde Abbey in Winchester. During the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII in the 16th century, the abbey was destroyed and Alfred's remains were lost.

Now Graham Phillips, a historian and author, says he has identified the likely spot where the bones were discarded. While researching the legends of King Arthur at Cambridge University, Phillips came across an 1800s journal article describing how prisoners building a prison on the abbey site had discovered a coffin. The article included a map showing where the bones and pieces of the coffin were dumped. Phillips compared that map with the modern layout and concluded the remains lie under a car park next to the former abbey.

Phillips told 5 News that a geophysics survey using ground penetrating radar is needed to confirm what is beneath the car park. He cannot afford the survey himself but hopes to persuade Winchester University to carry it out in the coming days.

The discovery has drawn comparisons to the 2012 find of King Richard III's remains under a car park in Leicester. Phillips acknowledged the coincidence, saying: 'I think it's basically that car parks are, there are so many of them in the country, it's more surprising really that more people aren't buried under them now.'

With England's women's football team preparing to face Norway in the World Cup quarter finals, Phillips jokingly suggested the timing could be a good omen, saying: 'His bones have been revealed. We may beat Norway this week.'