Skull-diggery uncovers burial site in South Mimms back garden

South Mimms resident Catherine McGuigan is an exception.

Workmen digging an extension in the back garden of her Blanche Lane cottage found ten coffins buried six feet below ground, full of human remains.

The initial discovery occurred three weeks ago, when Miss McGuigan, 42, arrived to find her builders huddled around a hole in the ground looking as pale as ghosts.

She said: "At first it was a real shock when I was told they had found a body. Then, I worried the builders might just walk out. But they have been really good about it.

"In the grand scheme of things I would probably have rather this had never happened. But looking at it from my ten-year-old's perspective, all the press and media attention has turned it into something exciting rather than something scary."

It is thought up to 40 more bodies could be buried at the cottage, built on the site of an 18th Century Quaker burial ground.

The Amalgamated Building Company is the main contractor in charge of the building work. Partner John Bailiss said he had not come across anything similar before.

"We got a call to say our guys had found a box with a bone in it. We didn't think too much of it, but when we came down we knew immediately what they were. All the coffins were intact.

"It definitely felt a bit gruesome. It was human remains. But after a while, as with anything, you just start to get used to it."

Because the remains turned out to be more than 100 years old, the police did not need to get involved.

But the Ministry of Justice, the Government department responsible for burial law, told Miss McGuigan it was an offence to "offer indignities to the remains of the dead" and warned of health and safety rules.

She is is now facing a bill of up to £30,000 to give the bodies a proper burial or cremation.

She said: "I could just throw them away, but I couldn't live with myself if I did that. The only option is to pay for them to be re-buried or cremated."