REMAINS of hundreds of people buried at Oxford’s Radcliffe Infirmary are to be exhumed as part of the £500m redevelopment of the former hospital site.

Up to 700 bodies are believed to lie in trenches, having been buried on the site after dying at the city centre hospital – some as long as 240 years ago.

The estimated number took Oxford University by surprise as it progresses plans to transform the former city centre hospital site into a new university quarter.

With plans well advanced to create buildings with large basements, the situation became further complicated with confirmation that the hospital cemetery is consecrated ground.

But the university was granted permission to exhume the remains by a public hearing held by the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Oxford, with permission granted by the Diocese Chancellor Rupert Bursell.

University spokesman Matt Pickles said: “The process of exhumation would be to bring in an archaeological specialist to excavate, record and remove the remains. Some may be taken away for detailed research which could provide enhanced knowledge of past surgical practices.”

The patients are thought to have been buried in the grounds of a former fever hospital on the Walton Street side of the site, opposite the Oxford University Press building.

Robert Lowth, the Bishop of Oxford from 1766 to 1777, consecrated a burial ground at the hospital in 1770 and it remained open for burials until 1855.

The outline of the burial ground remained partially visible until it was built over, by an extension to the Eye Hospital and a laboratory building in the 1920s and 1930s.

Mr Pickles said: “The remains are of those who did not have a proper burial and therefore there are no records existing to establish who they were.

“The main part of the site has been investigated fully from an archaeological perspective and cleared for redevelopment, and a comprehensive report has been published.”

Mr Bursell said: “I am satisfied there is no viable alternative to exhumation if the site is to be utilised to its full and necessary potential.”

Arrangements are being made to re-bury the bodies in Botley in an area of the cemetery that has been set aside and will be consecrated by the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard.

George Lambrick, president of the Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society, said: “We suggested that rather than digging a basement in this corner of the site, a basement could have been created under the new Jericho Health Centre. The cemetery could then have become a green space opposite the OUP.

“It raises wider issues about the interest people have in leaving the remains of their ancestors undisturbed, set against the interest of scientists in carrying out research.”

The university says it needs the basement space because it cannot build above a certain height limit.