“HAROLD HAREFOOT”

Evening Star, Issue 18852, 29 January 1925, Page 5

“HAROLD HAREFOOT”

.SEARCH FOR A DEAD KINO'S BO DA'. The headless body of Harold Die First —“Harold Harefool ’’ —King of England from 1055 to 10W, is to be fought for during the demolition of St.. Ola'-eft Cinudi, Southwark, says ( ho _ ‘ Daily Chronicle.’ Other relic?, ton, of ttio same and laier periods, am expected to bo found, and tho most careful scrutiny is to bo made, " There. is a tradition," said tho Lev. I. r, .Slovens, fijronnfor of Southwark Gai-hedrn.l, recently, "that Harold, t m; First was buried m St., ('Uves. and weight is given to this view by no less a» authority than Professor Oman, of Oxford. Even* effort is being made to secure that any relics shall not he overlooked or destroyed, and appropriate steps havo been taken by tho London Count,v Council and the Bermondsey Borough Council. In addition, Woolwich Antiquarian Society and Greenwich Antiquarian Society havo petitioned the Society of Antiquaries on the Enbjei and the ('duildli-a.il Museum authorities have been asked to exert all thrir influence to savo the relics that may bo brought bo light. Tho demolition of tho fabric of St. Olavo'a may bo undertaken at any moment now. Tho church has been closed for some months, and the incumbency merged with that of St. John's, Horsloydown (now known as “ St. Clave’? and St. John’s’’), and the altar-piece, a number of panels, and tho records have been transferred to St. John’s. “ The first church on the site of St. Clave’s was built in 1030 a.d., on or near an old Danish burial ground. And the story of Harold’s burial there—baaed on an old record—is most interesting. Harold died at Oxford, and was butted in Westminster Abbey. But later the, body was disinterred by order of Hardicanuto, beheaded, and flung contemptuously into tho Thame?. The headless body was swept down the river, and discovered by a fisherman near the spot where St. Olavo’s now stands, and given decent, but secret, burial.”