This is Leicestershire --Archaeologists have removed an inner lead coffin found within a medieval stone coffin at the Grey Friars site, in Leicester, and taken it away for analysis.
The coffin has gone to the University of Leicester's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, where tests will be carried out to find the safest way of opening it without damaging the remains inside. It took eight people to lift the stone lid from the outer coffin, which is more than two metres long.
Grey Friars site director Mathew Morris said: "We still don't know who is inside.
"None of us in the team have ever seen a lead coffin within a stone coffin before."
Archaeologists suspect the grave could belong to one of three prestigious figures known to be buried at the friary. These include two leaders of the English Grey Friars Order – Peter Swynsfeld, who died in 1272, and William of Nottingham, who died in 1330.
Records also suggest the friary contains the grave of "a knight called Mutton, sometime mayor of Leicester".
This may be 14th century knight Sir William de Moton of Peckleton, who died between 1356 and 1362.
However, many other people were buried in the Greyfriars church and it may be impossible to say for sure who was buried in the coffin, which was discovered during the dig for Richard III's body in September, but was left in the ground to keep it preserved while archaeologists concentrated on the king.
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