An abbot’s kneecap which was quietly pocketed by a boy on a school trip has finally been returned over 70 years later.
George Box was just 11 when he ducked under the ropes during an archaeological dig at Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset, in 1956 and helped himself to a bone from an opened tomb.
The unusual souvenir was kept for decades in a glass cabinet at his home in Australia before being returned to Glastonbury by his widow following his death in 2025.
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After marrying his second wife in 2000, George told her the story, and they agreed the remains would be returned on his passing, as reported by Need To Know.
Lucy Newman, from the abbey, said staff had a surprise towards the end of last year when George’s widow contacted them.
She said: “We get all sorts of weird and wonderful requests but this was quite a standout one.
“George’s widow contacted us because she was making arrangements to come back and spread some of his ashes where he had grown up around Brent Knoll.
“But she also wanted to return the kneecap her scallywag husband had helped himself to.”
Newman said the date she was given matched the time of a large archaeological dig at the site, when the tombs of several abbots had been opened.
She said the young schoolboy must have slipped his hand into an open tomb when nobody was watching and helped himself not only to the bone but also a fragment of medieval floor tile.
“Both things are very easy to pick up and put in a pair of schoolboy shorts,” she said.
“And as a child he never told anyone what he had done.
“As a child George never told anyone what he had done, and when he emigrated to Australia in the 1970s, he took the bone and tile with him.
“In Australia he carefully displayed them in a glass cabinet with fossils and other interesting items – he’d had a lifelong interest in archaeology.
“He didn’t want it returned until he’d passed away – I think maybe it was embarrassment.
“George married for the second time in 2000, and when his wife heard his tale, she thought the items should be returned to the abbey.
“He agreed that this could happen once he had passed away.
“In preparation for the artefacts’ return, he made a box for their long journey – reminiscent of the medieval reliquaries that saints’ bones and other items were kept.”
Although staff does not know exactly which abbot the kneecap belonged to, they have narrowed it down to three possible candidates who all died between 1250 and 1290.
Newman said the only way to establish its owner would be “exhuming them all and seeing how many knee bones they all have”.
She said: “The photographs we’ve got of the excavated tombs – we don’t know whether they were taken before or after a schoolboy climbed in and helped himself to a bone
“And an excavation could disturb more archaeology than would benefit from an abbot being reunited with his kneecap.”
“This means that the kneecap could belong to either Abbot Amesbury, Abbot Petherton or Abbot John of Taunton, who all died in the 13th century and were buried in that part of the abbey.
“All three remain at rest in this area, several metres below the ground.
“How surprised would they be to know that one of their kneecaps had travelled to Australia and back – a land completely unknown to medieval monks.”
Newman said that although the abbey did not condone schoolboys taking pieces of archaeology, the passage of time meant there was now an amnesty.
“It’s also quite nice that the knee bone has been all the way to a country that 13th-century abbots had absolutely no idea existed,” she added.
“Lots of our abbots travelled extensively in Europe; they would go to Rome and places like that, but he’s certainly now the most travelled.
“The abbey is very grateful for their return, and to have learnt the fascinating story.”
Glastonbury Abbey is a scheduled monument and is linked in medieval legend to Joseph of Arimathea – the man who buried the body of Jesus Christ in the New Testament – and the burial place of King Arthur.
The abbot’s kneecap is now on display in the abbey museum, where they can be viewed by visitors.
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