WORKMEN made an eerie discovery in Upton, the Gazette reported 25 years ago: they found four human skeletons when they broke into a brick-lined vault.

"One of the bodies was clad in a metal-studded leather jerkin and the grave is thought to date from around the 1750s. The discovery was made as the men were laying sewage pipes to serve the information and heritage centre being built at the town's Pepperpot, the ornate tower which is all that remains of the former parish church.

"We had already found similar vaults which had been filled in,' said Mr Fred Smith from Malvern Hills District Council's technical services department.

"When we came across this one we assumed it would be the same, but when we removed the brickwork - there they were.' "The wooden felt-covered coffins containing the bodies had totally rotted away and all that remained were a number of ornate rusted handles."

The county archivist, Mr Jan Roberts, who was called to the scene, tried to read the family name on the one remaining coffin plate, but it disintegrated when he touched it. He dismissed the find as "a typical middle class family vault", which was "of no interest at all".

The vault measured eight fett by six feet and was six feet high with a barrel-shaped roof. The bodies lay side by side facing east and the bones were yellowed and calcified.

Police were called, but the coroner accepted Mr Roberts's assesment that there was nothing sinister of of hisottical; value about the find, and the tomb was re-sealed.