Rare English charnel house can now be seen online

Experts recreate 3D version of medieval bone store beneath Northamptonshire church

Down steep narrow stone stairs beneath Holy Trinity church in Rothwell, Northamptonshire, there is a small, damp chamber crammed with human bones - believed to be one of only two medieval charnel houses in England still holding their original human remains.

The 13th-century charnel house - or bone store - at Rothwell, described as being of international importance, has been scanned and recreated digitally by scientists and archaeologists at the University of Sheffield, and their 3D model has now gone online. It includes an image of a skull rack, a wall lined with human skulls, which can't be seen as easily in the real building because the chapel is so stuffed with wooden racks of bones, the remains of at least 2,500 people.