We were first approached by Philippa Langley who's the secretary of the Richard III Society
in Scotland. She's also a screenwriter and she had this idea of producing a new
film called The Search for Richard, and she wanted to actually do some investigations to
try and find the burial place of Richard III. Well, we know from documentary sources that
his body was stripped of clothing and armour and then put on display in Leicester to the populace
to show that the King had indeed been killed. And then the documents refer to the Grey Friars
taking the body and burying it in their church. The big question really is whereabouts in the
church did they bury it, and also whether the body remained there after the friary
was dissolved during the reign of Henry VIII. We would suspect that the body lies in a sort
of high status part of the church. Probably fairly close to the east end, near the altar,
in the choir of the church. There are references to another burial there of a knight called Mutton
and we also know that Henry VII paid for an alabaster tomb to be constructed over the site
of the grave of Richard III. So in the sort of early part of the 16th century it's probably quite
a visible monument within the church. But in terms of where the church itself is, there are a few
problems with that location. We used map evidence, particularly 18th century maps to get an idea of
property boundaries and plan accordingly for the church being in a particular part of the
plot. But it is very much open to question. There has been a ground probing radar survey
done of the site which has revealed various hot spots which could be layers of rubble and
things like that. But such surveys are extremely difficult to interpret. So one of the main things
we've done is to sort of site very long trenches running north-south with the aim of picking up
east-west walls of the church. Because as you know churches are always orientated east-west.
So there should be at least two walls, if not four walls, running in that direction. Plus all the
other buildings of the friary, like the cloisters, should also have east-west walls. So that's the
plan. is to do two very long trenches and then, having established the plan of any structures,
from those we then have a contingency for another trench where we can perhaps home in on, if
possible, the site of where the burial might be. Well, I suppose we have the sort of greatest
knowledge of the archaeology of the city. Although we've only been going since 1995,
a lot of our staff go right back into the seventies, and I'd say probably 98% of all
excavations in the city have been done by staff of ULAS. So that's one thing. But
also within the University we have people in the academic departments with a particular expertise
in urban friaries. And also the Department of Genetics, we have specialists there. So
people can come to the University and guarantee that they get all areas of expertise necessary
to bring the project to a successful close. Any monastic site is likely to have quite a
few burials. It'll have burials both within the church but also surrounding the buildings as
well. What we can't afford to do is to excavate any burials that we don't believe to be Richard
III. So what we will probably do is actually uncover any remains on the surface and have a
brief investigation to see whether there are any obvious signs that it's Richard III. For example,
trauma to the skeleton suggesting that someone has been wounded in battle for example,
would be one thing. That's probably the only indicator we can expect to find unless
there are any remains of this alabaster tomb that that still survive on the site. And then
if we suspect that the burial could be Richard III, we will have already have taken precautions
to make sure we don't contaminate any of the bones with our DNA by wearing protective suits. We will
then get DNA specialists in to take samples. Well, there’s a very strong possibility we will
find evidence of all periods because Leicester was occupied from the 1st century BC and it obviously
continues to be occupied today. We might get Iron Age activity. We could get Roman deposits relating
to the Roman town So things like street metalling, foundations of buildings, floor levels and things
like that. Going to the medieval period we could get some Anglo-Saxon stuff. We could get evidence
of medieval plots and properties on the frontages. And then after the friary period, when the
friary’s demolished in the reign of Henry VIII, it then eventually becomes a mansion owned by
the Herrick family. So we might expect to get the sort of gardens of the mansion and maybe even some
structures associating with it. So it's very much a sort of pot luck in a sense, in that you dig
a trench you could find all sorts of things, not necessarily what you're actually looking for. The
artifacts and all the records that come from the excavation will be analysed in-house because we
have a specialist in Roman and medieval pottery, building materials, environmental samples, animal
bones and so forth. And then eventually when we've documented them all and catalogued them,
they then get deposited with Leicester City Museum Service. And some may go on display,
depending on their quality, whilst other ones will remain in store for study by future generations.
We're doing two 30-metre long trenches and the size of the friary is such that we could easily
miss major buildings in the friary. The analogy I often use is it's like a game of Battleships where
you choose a square and you go for that, and you can either get a hit or a miss. So first of all,
the chances of getting the Greyfriars. I think probably I'd say there's an 80% probability
that we will hit the Greyfriars buildings. As to actually finding Richard III, it is actually a
real long shot because not only have we got to find the Greyfriars buildings, we've also got
to find the precise spot that he was buried. And also, were his remains actually removed
with the dissolution or not? We’re not sure. I think there'll be a lot of excitement if they
prove to be Richard III because it's not every day that you find the remains of a King. And
I think it will be a good thing for Leicester. It will become so people will actually come to
visit the city. So it'll be good for tourism and it'll really put Leicester on the map.