Clergymen attempting to prove claims that a skull found in a Worcestershire church vault is that of William Shakespeare have been thwarted by a senior church lawyer who has barred them from carrying out DNA testing.
A local story has it that a skull in a vault beneath Sheldon Chapel at St Leonard's Church in Beoley, Redditch, was stolen from the playwright's tomb in Stratford-upon-Avon as part of a 300 ($680) wager set by the art historian Horace Walpole in the 18th century.
The Rev Paul Irving applied to the Church of England's consistory court for permission to remove the skull temporarily for DNA testing, as part of a documentary investigation of the claims. But the application has been thrown out by Charles Mynors, Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester, who ruled there was nothing to link the skull to Shakespeare.
The story is based on two magazine articles, dated 1879 and 1884. The first claimed that in 1769 Walpole offered 300 to anyone who could obtain the skull of Shakespeare, who was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. It claimed that Dr Frank Chambers broke into Shakespeare's tomb and stole the skull but failed to persuade Walpole or anyone else to hand over money for it, so arranged for it to be returned to the tomb.
The second article claimed that this was never done and that the skull was traced to the church at Beoley, 25km from Stratford.
