Found bones in an old church porch, should I report it?

[IsitaHatOrACat]

On a walk at the weekend I explored an old (unused) church and graveyard. These bones were sitting in the church porch. Any advice? It seems a bit off to just ignore them. Has this ever happened to anyone else and did you do anything about it?

I'm not an expert, but I, for example, cook? Use food waste bins? I have taken part in dissections of roadkill in school. It takes absolutely ages for bones with meat on to decay away to look that dry, unless you use many specialist chemicals and that's also a lengthy process.

These are not recent remains. No, I can't identify if they're human or animal or anything else about them, but they are not recent.

Where are they now.

In some countries it's common to exhume buried relatives after a few years and re-inter them elsewhere, due to shortages of graveyard space. I don't want to be gross, but they wouldn't look like that yet at that point. So that means these bones are not from a human body that died less than a year or so ago. If it were me I'd leave them alone and avoid the needless drama because I'd be 99% sure there isn't a police-worthy story behind them

Seconded.

This is making me very nervous about all the old bones I've found in our back garden...

Graveyards are often raised from the ground around them due to the centuries of burials. It's mostly likely from obe of them. We found some vertebrae that had come out sideways onto a graveyard path. I appreciate that it might not have been the right thing to do, but we just put them back where we found them. The chance of bones found in a graveyard being from a recent, sinister source seems unlikely, but maybe that's exactly where you'd dispose of bones if you needed to.

https://friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk
and
https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/our-history

Might be worth asking these if the church is under their care once the police have been informed?

Following with interest, glad you’ve logged it with Police. Hopefully it’s harmless but you never know

The next farm over to where I grew up were digging out a silage clamp and came across bones, so the police were called. Turned out to be a Roman legionary. Much easier to deal with than a recent murder.

How old was it? Stupid question but how easy is it to distinguish between 50-150 years? 50 years could be a 1970s murder etc..

Still where I found them

Most likely explanation is that a grave has been disturbed in some way wether that be through the weather, animals or human activity and some bones have come to the surface. Someone before you found them and thought putting them in the porch was the best thing to do, maybe not realising that the church is permanently closed.. Let 101 know and they will decide what to do (or not do).

Sorry you’ve had a hard time from some posters OP. I’d be exactly like you, and not have a clue what to do.

Thank goodness an archeologist rocked up to help us recognise, "generic useless drivel".
I thought we were all just mummies on mumsnet trying to help each other. And yes, God does know. 🤣🤣🤣

We live next to a very old church, with part of our garden being the old parsons acre and get this all the time both in the churchyard and our garden, from natural movement and animal activity.

The vicar couldn’t have been less interested and the first time it happened just told me to throw them back over. We are a farming community so tend to be a bit more “at one with the circle of life” as it were. Ones found in the churchyard do get gathered up and popped on one side for later reinterment so I can imagine how it’s happened. .

Odd that they're in the porch, but perhaps someone found them and rather than leave them be thought to put them somewhere someone churchy might see? If it wasn't a redundant church the churchwarden would probably just have reburied them.

Moles often bring bones up in churchyards. My eldest DC toddled over (years ago) clutching a human finger bone. I was too busy trying to wrestle it from her chewing attempts to worry about anything else!

Our old house and garden had old stone walls. Now and again sections would tumble down. In them we found animals bones and small glass bottles. Upon enquiry locally it was a superstition thing to keep witches out.

Ooh please keep us informed!

Ignore the rude posters, there really isn't any need.

I actually thought the AI was a little more informative... :P

On returning from an archeological field trip as a student we stopped in a town for a pint in the local pub. Opposite the pub was a graveyard. Went for a wander and saw bones in a grave which had been disturbed. Reported it to Prof and he rang the police. They took it very seriously and came out almost immediately. Statements were taken.

I’d be interested to know what happens.

While snorkelling in fairly shallow Caribbean water, a dd found what looked like a long, intact, human femur. She told the hotel staff, who just said that a plane had crashed in the sea not far from the island many years ago, so no doubt it had come from one of those who’d died.

They evidently didn’t want to take any further action, so dd buried it in a particularly quiet and peaceful area of the hotel gardens.

This is completely unrelated, but like the pp, your thread reminded me of another similar thing, the issue of floating caskets in New Orleans. Apparently their heavy rains and low lying land make this an occasional problem.

I'm doing pretty well but come on, this is obvious.

Like others, grew up next to a medieval churchyard. Things come to the surface regularly…