Legend has it, it could be the skull of William Shakespeare - robbed from the playwright's grave to win a £300 bet.
But clergymen attempting to solve a centuries-old mystery over the identity of a lone skull found in a Worcestershire church vault have been thwarted by a senior church lawyer - who has barred them from carrying out DNA testing.
Could this be Shakespeare's skull? Why Church ruling means we may never know
Clergymen hoping to take mystery skull for DNA testing see their application thrown out by Church lawyer
Shakespeare's Stolen Skull? Found in Sheldon Chapel, St Leonard's Church, Beoley
By Emily Gosden
01 Nov 2015
The Telegraph
Legend has it, it could be the skull of William Shakespeare - robbed from the playwright's grave to win a £300 bet.
But clergymen attempting to solve a centuries-old mystery over the identity of a lone skull found in a Worcestershire church vault have been thwarted by a senior church lawyer - who has barred them from carrying out DNA testing.
According to local folklore, the skull, in a vault beneath Sheldon chapel at St Leonard's Church in Beoley, Redditch, was stolen from the playwright’s tomb in Stratford as part of a wager set by the art historian Horace Walpole in the 1700s.
Rev Paul Irving, vicar at St Leonard’s, applied to the Church of England’s Consistory Court for permission to temporarily remove the skull for DNA testing, as part of a new documentary investigation into the claims.
But the application, which was supported by other local clergymen, has been thrown out by Charles Mynors, Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester, who ruled there was nothing to link the skull to Shakespeare.
St Leonard's Church, Beoley, Worcestershire
The legend is based on two magazine articles, dated 1879 and 1884. The first claimed that in 1769 Walpole offered £300 to anyone who could obtain the skull of Shakespeare, who was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford and whose grave bears an epitaph cursing anyone who should attempt to move his bones.
It claimed that a Dr Frank Chambers broke into Shakespeare's tomb and stole the skull but then failed to persuade Walpole or any-one else to hand over money for it, so arranged for it to be returned to the tomb.
"The problem for us now is that the failure to conduct a detailed investigation will result in a higher level of uninformed speculation"
Rev Richard Clark, the Team Rector at Holy Trinity Redditch
The author of the articles is not known but is thought may have Rev C J Langston, vicar of Beoley from 1881 to 1889.
In a judgment running to nearly 7,000 words, Chancellor Mynors, a barrister, sided with prominent Shakespeare scholars who have rubbished the claims and concluded they read “like a piece of Gothic fiction”.
He said he had seen “no scholarly or other evidence that comes anywhere near providing any support for the truth of the story” and that there was “nothing whatsoever to link it to William Shakespeare”
He concluded that "the curiosity as to the skull at Beoley has no factual base whatsoever to justify exhumation, removal or investigation”.
William Shakespeare Photo: ALAMY
But Rev Richard Clark, the Team Rector at Holy Trinity Redditch, overseeing the parish including Beoley, said he was disappointed by the ruling and that without detailed investigation there was “absolutely no way that we can disprove” the “intriguing” theory that it could be Shakespeare’s.
He told the Telegraph: “There is this skull sitting there on its own and we would love to know who it is. The ideal for us would have been to get some DNA testing to try to match it up to see if it’s part of one of the skeletons that’s down there or who or what it might be.”
He said the Diocesan Advisory Committee had been happy with the plan and it was only the Diocesan Chancellor who objected.
“While I understand we don’t want people on fishing expeditions mucking about with human remains, the problem for us now is that the failure to conduct a detailed investigation will result in a higher level of uninformed speculation - whereas if we had the investigation done, then it would settle the matter once and for all.”
Could this be Shakespeare's skull? Why Church ruling means we may never know - Telegraph
But clergymen attempting to solve a centuries-old mystery over the identity of a lone skull found in a Worcestershire church vault have been thwarted by a senior church lawyer - who has barred them from carrying out DNA testing.
Could this be Shakespeare's skull? Why Church ruling means we may never know
Clergymen hoping to take mystery skull for DNA testing see their application thrown out by Church lawyer
Shakespeare's Stolen Skull? Found in Sheldon Chapel, St Leonard's Church, Beoley
By Emily Gosden
01 Nov 2015
The Telegraph
Legend has it, it could be the skull of William Shakespeare - robbed from the playwright's grave to win a £300 bet.
But clergymen attempting to solve a centuries-old mystery over the identity of a lone skull found in a Worcestershire church vault have been thwarted by a senior church lawyer - who has barred them from carrying out DNA testing.
According to local folklore, the skull, in a vault beneath Sheldon chapel at St Leonard's Church in Beoley, Redditch, was stolen from the playwright’s tomb in Stratford as part of a wager set by the art historian Horace Walpole in the 1700s.
Rev Paul Irving, vicar at St Leonard’s, applied to the Church of England’s Consistory Court for permission to temporarily remove the skull for DNA testing, as part of a new documentary investigation into the claims.
But the application, which was supported by other local clergymen, has been thrown out by Charles Mynors, Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester, who ruled there was nothing to link the skull to Shakespeare.
St Leonard's Church, Beoley, Worcestershire
The legend is based on two magazine articles, dated 1879 and 1884. The first claimed that in 1769 Walpole offered £300 to anyone who could obtain the skull of Shakespeare, who was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford and whose grave bears an epitaph cursing anyone who should attempt to move his bones.
It claimed that a Dr Frank Chambers broke into Shakespeare's tomb and stole the skull but then failed to persuade Walpole or any-one else to hand over money for it, so arranged for it to be returned to the tomb.
"The problem for us now is that the failure to conduct a detailed investigation will result in a higher level of uninformed speculation"
Rev Richard Clark, the Team Rector at Holy Trinity Redditch
The author of the articles is not known but is thought may have Rev C J Langston, vicar of Beoley from 1881 to 1889.
In a judgment running to nearly 7,000 words, Chancellor Mynors, a barrister, sided with prominent Shakespeare scholars who have rubbished the claims and concluded they read “like a piece of Gothic fiction”.
He said he had seen “no scholarly or other evidence that comes anywhere near providing any support for the truth of the story” and that there was “nothing whatsoever to link it to William Shakespeare”
He concluded that "the curiosity as to the skull at Beoley has no factual base whatsoever to justify exhumation, removal or investigation”.
William Shakespeare Photo: ALAMY
But Rev Richard Clark, the Team Rector at Holy Trinity Redditch, overseeing the parish including Beoley, said he was disappointed by the ruling and that without detailed investigation there was “absolutely no way that we can disprove” the “intriguing” theory that it could be Shakespeare’s.
He told the Telegraph: “There is this skull sitting there on its own and we would love to know who it is. The ideal for us would have been to get some DNA testing to try to match it up to see if it’s part of one of the skeletons that’s down there or who or what it might be.”
He said the Diocesan Advisory Committee had been happy with the plan and it was only the Diocesan Chancellor who objected.
“While I understand we don’t want people on fishing expeditions mucking about with human remains, the problem for us now is that the failure to conduct a detailed investigation will result in a higher level of uninformed speculation - whereas if we had the investigation done, then it would settle the matter once and for all.”
Could this be Shakespeare's skull? Why Church ruling means we may never know - Telegraph