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Archaeologists are about to dig up a Plymouth building site where they expect to find the remains of hundreds of sailors who died more than 200 years ago – and need to know if descendants want to claim a body.

Experts from Exeter-based AC Archaeology will start excavating at the site once home to Westward TV studios, at Derry’s Cross, in August 2018.

They will be looking for the remains of sailors who were buried on the site between 1762 and 1822 when it was a military graveyard.

Similar excavations at land next door, now covered in the new Crescent Point student flats, revealed more than 200 bodies in 2015.

And the archaeologists need to know if anyone who is a descendant of any of the men buried on the plot want to claim their ancestor’s skeleton and re-bury them elsewhere.

“It’s part of a former Royal Navy cemetery and we need to let people know so they can claim the remains,” said Charlotte Coles, finds and archives officer at AC Archaeology.

“It’s our responsibility to inform the public six weeks prior to excavation starting, to allow anyone to contact us if they believe they have relatives buried in the cemetery.”

(Image: Penny Cross)

She said archaeologists expect to find skeletons and possibly items such as buttons and coins.

“Generally the sailors were Christian burials so there were not a lot of goods,” said Ms Coles. “Lavish tombs are usually in the Saxon period, Christian burials are generally more humble.”

Any bodies that are dug up will be re-interred at Ford Park cemetery after being studied.

The removal of bodies will happen behind screens to protect the dignity of the deceased, and the area will be disinfected.

A report into the findings of the exploration of the neighbouring Crescent Point site is about to be published.

(Image: Penny Cross)

The people buried under the site, which is expected to be readied for development later this year, are expected to all be male sailors who died from injury or disease.

During the period when the graveyard was in use Britain fought the 1812 Anglo-American War, and the Napoleonic Wars, including famous battles such as Trafalgar.

The Royal Navy was also active in the Middle East and protecting British interests worldwide, including India, and Ms Coles said: “We were pretty much always at war in that period.”

The sailors would all have survived battle, but may have been wounded and returned to Plymouth for treatment in Stonehouse Naval Hospital, and other locations, before succumbing to their wounds.

However, many of the matelots are likely to have died from disease, with scurvy, TB and syphilis rife at the time.

“People who died in battle were generally buried at sea,” Ms Coles said. “So these people died from injuries or disease.

“There were years when scurvy killed more people than died in action.

“And a lot of infectious diseases spread in the cramped conditions.”

(Image: Penny Cross)

She said naval records from the time are scant and much of what paperwork did exist was destroyed in the Blitz.

But the site, once earmarked for the huge Oceanique tower which won’t now be built, is thought to be part of the same graveyard which stretched into the Crescent Point patch.

But it is not known how the development of the 1960s TV studio, later used by law firm Foot Anstey before being demolished, has affected the site.

“We know there are remains but until we start excavating we don’t know what we will find,” Ms Coles said.

But she is certain of one thing: “No women were found at the earlier excavations,” she said. “Se we expect to find men.”