Human bones dated to be more than 1,000 years old have been discovered in the garden of a hotel, with 24 skeletons found alongside bones belonging to a number of others.

The Anglo-Saxon remains of men, women and children were found in the grounds of The Old Bell Hotel in Malmesbury, which is next door to Malmesbury Abbey, in Wiltshire.

The remains are from 670 to 940 AD, so include the very earliest days of the abbey, when it was a monastery.

Malmesbury Abbey historian Tony McAleavy said the results are significant, especially because the place “at this time was one of the leading centres of scholarship in western Europe”.

Malmesbury Abbey historian and local resident Tony McAleavy said he “was off the scale excited”.

“What we’ve got here is not a collection of the bodies of monks - it’s men, women and children,” he added.

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Mr McAleavy added: "It looks like we’ve found traces of the community of people to helped the monks here.

“It’s going to shed new light on the way Malmesbury Abbey worked in its golden age.”