History Cold Case UK

When the remains of 17 people – men, women and children – were discovered recently in a dry well shaft in Norwich city centre, the local community were alarmed and desperate for answers about who these people were and what happened to them. Thought to date from the early 1200s, the story surrounding these bones quickly develops into a suspected medieval murder case but the final reveal of the identity of these people is an even bigger shock to all involved and sheds new light on a period of history that until now we thought we fully understood.

Since the 1950s experts have remained baffled by a jumble of human bones discovered in a unique series of caves on the North York Moors. Known as the ‘Windy Pits’, due to the air which gusts out of the mouths of these caves, this area has been the inspiration for much folklore and mystery for thousands of years. Human and animal remains thought to date right back to prehistoric times have been excavated from the caves but one discovery in particular stands out; one cave, called Slip Gill, where the tangle of bones might belong to a male, female and two adolescents. Now the history cold case team hopes that by throwing the full arsenal of forensic tests combined with up to date historical research at the mystery could finally get some concrete answers. Is this a family of people we are looking at in Slip Gill and, if so, what is a family doing dead at the bottom of a cave in Yorkshire? The trail is set to take us into a dark world of ritual sacrifice, and right back to the limits of British recorded history.

In 2008 construction workers just beyond York’s City Walls uncovered 113 bodies on a site thought to be out of use between the 1580s and 1830s. Almost exclusively young men the skeletons show signs of hard physical labour and extensive scarring leading archaeologists to believe these could be Parliamentary forces who lay siege to the city in 1644 during the Civil War. But only a full forensic and historical investigation will confidently lead to answers about who the people are in this unique grave. If they are civil war soldiers why do they not appear to have died violently? And why do the skeletons of young men show signs of repetitive strains normally seen in old men who have led physically demanding lives? Why do lots of the skeletons have healed wounds caused by sharp objects? This unique case will shed new light on life in a siege army and the training techniques of the Civil War and – ultimately – provide and brand new and personalized perspective on this major turning point in British history. When the team spots an incredibly rare genetic peculiarity in two of the skeletons among the 113 they realize they could have stumbled on a pair of brothers. The trail to find out who these two men could have been and how they ended up dead in a mass grave outside York takes us into an extraordinary tale of bravery in the face of extreme hardship and gives us a brand new perspective on disability centuries ago which can perhaps teach us something about so-called modern attitudes to disability today.

In the sleepy commuter town of Baldock in Hertfordshire the discovery of a wonderfully intact skeleton of a woman dating from early Roman times – buried with the tiny skeletons of three babies – rocked the scientific world as it’s an archaeological first. Buried on the outskirts of a cemetery in what at first appears to be an unceremonious burial, she cuts a tragic picture. Did she die in childbirth? Or are these not her babies? And why was she buried with apparent disregard for the proper burial practices of the day? For the History Cold Case team it’s a unique opportunity to investigate details about pregnancy and childbirth as it was 2000 years ago in a Roman-British settlement – and what they discover is shocking. The way she was buried with the babies also tantalizing opens up the possibility that she is the mother of triplets – which would make this the earliest recorded case of a multiple pregnancy ever known. They need to find out whether she is a Roman settler or in fact a local Brit and to forensically unpack the events which led to her death if they are to have a hope of bringing the identity of this woman out from the shadows.