ARCHAEOLOGISTS searching for the remains of King Alfred in Winchester have discovered a human bone - possibly his pelvis.

The bone fragment, 30 centimetres in diameter, and yellow in colour was discovered at the dig on the former site of Hyde Abbey. It has now been sent to a special laboratory for analysis.

Volunteers searching in the high altar pit, dubbed the Alfred pit, first thought they had found animal remains.

However, after conducting experiments, the fragment was found to be half a human pelvis.

Linda Mitchell, 39, from Hedge End was one of many digging in the pit when they found the human remains.

She said: "In the same pit, I also found remains of cows and a bull, so first I thought it was animal bone.

"My main interest is in the history of the site, and the various times it has been robbed. I assumed Alfred was long gone, so it was exciting to find the pelvis."

Site boss Peter Fairclough said: "The pits do contain human bone and we have found the possible remains of Alfred, or his Queen Eahlswith, or their son Edward.

Tomorrow excitement builds as the volunteers will be digging very close to where they found the pelvis bone.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.