WINCHESTER Cathedral is poised to launch a unique research project into the bones of Anglo-Saxon and medieval kings that have lain in wooden chests for more than a thousand years.

Church leaders are understood to be keen to take the first steps into studying the remains of monarchs and bishops inside the ‘mortuary chests’ including DNA analysis.

The chests that sit atop stone screens by the presbytery hold the bones of around 12 people, reputed to include Cnut, of tide-defying fame, his son Hardacnut, Egbert and possibly William Rufus, who was killed perhaps murdered near Minstead in the New Forest in 1100.

The cathedral is believed to have applied for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and be seeking permission from the Cathedrals Fabric Commission and English Heritage.

Senior clerics consider the project to be highly sensitive and a cathedral spokesman declined to discuss the project with the Hampshire Chronicle.

The project has been in the pipeline for years. Dr John Crook, the cathedral’s consultant archaeologist, first drew up a feasibility study more than ten years go.

One reason for the sensitivity is because, although of obvious historical interest, the bones are the remains of people.

Dr Crook, who declined to discuss the issue, said in 2002: “This would be a very exciting project and I hope it can proceed. These are important things and we owe it to the individuals to find out more about them.”

The project would involve historians, archaeologists, DNA experts, other scientists and art historians.