An exhibition and lecture series currently being hosted by Sherborne Abbey marks the centenary of the ‘rediscovery’ in June 1925 of the bones of Æthelbert King of Wessex. Admission is free to the exhibition and lectures, further details of which can be found on the Sherborne Abbey website.
On 4 June 1925, during the restoration of the Lady Chapel of Sherborne Abbey, a stone coffin was found at the east end of the north choir aisle. It was suggested that the bones in the coffin were those of Æthelbert King of Wessex 860-865, whose brother King Æthelbald was also buried in Sherborne Abbey.
Æthelbert (Ethelbert) was son of King Æthelwulf (Ethelwulf) and brother of Æthelstan (Athelstan), Æthelbald (Ethelbald), Æthelswith (Ethelswith), Æthelred (Ethelred), and Ælfred (Alfred). Sadly for us King Alfred was buried at Winchester, but we like to claim him as an Old Shirburnian because it has been suggested that when his brother Æthelbert succeeded to the throne Alfred accompanied him to Sherborne where he was taught to read by the monks of Sherborne Abbey.
The stone coffin purporting to hold the bones of King Æthelbert was found in an area of Sherborne Abbey that from 1560 to 1921 was occupied by Sherborne School. In 1559 the School Governors had acquired the two partly demolished Lady Chapels at the east end of Sherborne Abbey and converted them into living accommodation for the headmaster of Sherborne School, and so it remained with successive headmasters and their families calling it home until 1860 when, with much relief, they were able to move into the newly built and comparatively luxurious School House.
In 1921 the former headmaster’s house was reincorporated into Sherborne Abbey, but during the intervening sixty years it was retained by the School and used variously as a sanatorium, a book pound, a common room, and lodging for masters. None of which seems entirely fitting for the supposed final resting place of two Kings of Wessex!
The discovery of the bones in June 1925 caused great excitement at Sherborne School, with one master, A.H. Trelawny Ross (housemaster of Lyon House), rushing his Form down to the Abbey where ‘they just saw what may have been his shin bones, or the like, being put back. It was quite a thrill anyhow.’ (A.H. Trelawny-Ross, Their Prime of Life, p.84)
The discovery was also worthy of a mention in the School magazine: ‘On June 4th, workmen engaged in the restoration of the Lady Chapel found a stone coffin, which may prove to be that of Æthelbert, the brother of Ælfred. The great King [Alfred] himself was buried at Winchester, though we like to think he was at school here, and of his other brothers, Æthelred lies at Wimborne and Æthelbald in the Abbey. We envy those who had the opportunity of seeing the opened coffin, and inspecting the remains of one whose brother may be among the oldest Shirburnians.’ (The Shirburnian, June 1925)
Twenty years prior to the discovery of the stone coffin, the royal brothers King Æthelbald and King Æthelbert had appeared in bodily form at the Sherborne Pageant, staged at the Old Castle on 12 to 16 June 1905, when John Crichton (Headmaster of Foster’s School) took on the role of King Æthelbert and Henry Dunkin (housemaster of The Green) that of King Æthelbald.
The royal brothers are also depicted at Sherborne School in the stained glass window in the south end of the Upper Library, designed by Clayton & Bell and installed in 1887 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
So, please do visit the exhibition in Sherborne Abbey and decide for yourself whether the bones discovered in June 1925 were those of Æthelbert King of Wessex.
To find out more, read Francis Brown’s article, ‘A Royal Skeleton in the Chapel: Were the lost bones of medieval King Ethelbert hidden in Sherborne Abbey? A convenient discovery suggested they were’, History Today (June 2025)
Visit Sherborne School Archive News for more stories from the archives.
Posted 2 June 2025 by Sherborne School Archives