Workers accidentally discover an Archbishop's lost tomb -- in London

Crypt contains remains of Richard Bancroft who commissioned the King James Bible.

The remains of five Archbishops of Canterbury have been found under a medieval church during renovations. The find is remarkable because of who lies in the coffins.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) -- The coffins of five Archbishops of Canterbury have been discovered under an old parish church next door to Lambeth Palace,  the Archbishop of Canterbury's official London residence.

Workers were renovating the Garden Museum, where the former church of St. Mary at Lambeth is located. Under the church, workers found a hidden crypt containing 30 lead coffins. One of the coffins has a gold mitre on top of it.

Workers did not enter the crypt. Teaming with staff from the Garden Museum, they used a phone at the end of a pole to briefly film the inside of the crypt.

Name plates on the coffins revealed who was buried there, including Richard Bancroft the Archbishop who commissioned the King James Bible. The last burial in the crypt appears to date to 1805.

 The discovery is remarkable because in the 1850s, the church cemetery was removed and the existing crypts were filled in with earth. However, this one crypt appears to have been left untouched, likely overlooked and forgotten, despite being out of use just 45 years. The choice may have been intentional, but nobody knows.

The crypt appears to contain lead coffins for five archbishops. The identities of several others remain unknown. While the crypt is undisturbed for now, it is likely it will be investigated in more detail at a later point in time. Such a find is too tantalizing for historians to leave untouched forever.

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