BONES exhumed from a Hampshire churchyard are to be reburied tomorrow.

At one stage it was hoped the bones taken up from a grave at St Bartholomew’s church in Winchester were those of King Alfred the Great.

The bones were exhumed from the grave that was the last known resting place of the great Saxon king.

Analysis later showed they were medieval and so too modern to be Alfred.

The bones are to be reburied in the grave at St Bartholomew’s at 10.30am by Rev Cliff Bannister with the Bishop of Basingstoke, the Rt Rev David Williams.

Also present will be local people including members of Hyde 900 the local group who initiated the grave project.

The ceremony coincides with the annual King Alfred Weekend which marks the 1,115th anniversary of his death.

The weekend includes an exhibition on the stonework of Hyde Abbey, of which St Bartholomew’s was part, and a project to remember the Hyde soldiers who died in the First World war. Sixty-six local men died in the 1914-18 conflict.

The exhumation in March 2013 sparked further research into remains found elsewhere in Hyde in 1999 which were revealed to be Saxon and so likely to be Alfred or a close relative.