HEADS sliced off, bricks placed inside skulls and bodies thrown into ditches – these are just some of the gruesome discoveries in Britain’s biggest ever archaeological project.

       And they have all been unearthed during construction of the HS2 high-speed railway.

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       Gruesome discoveries have been made in Britain's biggest ever archaeological project 8

       They have all been unearthed during construction of the HS2 high-speed railway

       Now, thousands of experts and archaeologists are carefully cataloguing and removing all remnants of our history that lie in the path of the route from London to Birmingham.

       Even tombs of heroes from our past were allowed to crumble into oblivion in the nation’s forgotten resting places.

       The most recent find was the remains of 40 decapitated Romans at Fleet Marston, near Aylesbury, Bucks.

       Some were buried with their heads placed between their legs or next to their feet.

       Historians believe this could be a sign of an ancient cult or that the people were outcasts from Roman society.

       Fleet Marston is among more than 100 sites along the HS2 line, from which more than 70,000 bodies have been moved to new resting places.

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       Also on the route is St James’s cemetery in London, where the archaeology project is believed to be the largest exhumation ever carried out in Europe.

       And at the other end of the route in Birmingham, evidence emerged to support tales of the real Peaky Blinders gangs fighting it out in Park Street cemetery.

       Helen Wass, who has worked on the project for more than a decade, told The Sun: “We learned from local historians that the gangs were slogging in the burial grounds.”

       Even before the first spades went into the ground in 2018, Helen and her team began mapping out the sites of interest along the route of the ￡100billion high-speed rail line.

       Wine glass

       They knew from the start that both Park Street and St James’s would be huge operations. The burial ground in London had to go to make way for the expansion of Euston Station.

       This 18th century graveyard had originally been intended to have 16,000 burials, but the pressure of an ever expanding capital meant 60,000 were found by the HS2 team.

       In 1887 most of the tombstones were taken away so the cemetery could be transformed into a public garden.

       Beneath those lawns and hedges were the forgotten remains of Captain Matthew Flinders, the first man to circumnavigate the Australian continent, slave turned champion boxer Bill Richmond and James Christie, the founder of the auction house.

       While their bodies were identified, the vast majority of the rest had no nameplates.

       Helen said: “These were the people who built our great cities. Some were famous and some were not.”

       At the Midlands end there was evidence of macabre mistreatment of the dead in Park Street burial ground.

       Helen, Head of Heritage at HS2, said: “Unusual objects have been left where the brain would have been, and they include a brick, a marmalade jar and a small wine glass. Very curious.”

       She thinks it is most likely because the bodies had been used for research by medical students at nearby Birmingham General Hospital.

       Some students were known not to treat bodies with the dignity they deserve.

       Other skeletons were found with body parts cut off, and it is possible the trainees did not bother to reattach them.

       Helen said: “The suspicion is that it is to do with the teaching hospitals. Some of it may simply be the anatomists and students possibly reburying dissections.”

       There were more than 6,500 burials at Park Street. Some were found with a bowl of salt to ward off evil and many of the remains displayed the signs of scurvy or rickets.

       And 100 years ago people faced plenty of other horrors besides disease.

       Historians told the archaeologists how the street gangs dramatised in the BBC series Peaky Blinders would attack each other with belts, buckles and heavy boots among the graves in Park Street.

       But while the story goes that the peaked caps worn by the gangsters hid blades to use as weapons, it was also a fashion to wear them slanted over one eye — which was therefore blinded by the peak.

       Helen said: “We are all fascinated by Peaky Blinders the series and it is interesting to learn that the caps did not necessarily have razors in them.”

       As the HS2 excavations have shown, Britain’s history of barbarity goes back much further than 200 years.

       One of the biggest surprises was the excavation of a Roman settlement in a field near Stoke Mandeville, Bucks.

       We are all fascinated by Peaky Blinders the series and it is interesting to learn that the caps did not necessarily have razors in them

       Helen Wass, HS2 Head of Heritage

       The archaeologists knew they would find bodies around St Mary’s church, which stood in the way of HS2 — but didn’t expect to find evidence of Anglo-Saxon and Roman life.

       Deep down under layers of soil was a ditch into which Roman cremation urns, two busts and a body had been thrown unceremoniously a couple of thousand years ago.

       The skeleton’s leg injuries suggested a violent end, and the archaeologists are trying to work out why he might have been killed.

       It is possible that the Anglo-Saxons who succeeded the Romans in Britain wanted to destroy all remnants of the previous regime.

       Dr Rachel Wood, the lead archaeologist at the site, said: “The cremation urns seem to have been thrown in with no care.”

       Around 3,000 bodies were removed from this previously ignored patch of the Home Counties.

       A short distance away, on the other side of Aylesbury, a team encountered far more grisly remains at Fleet Marston, in what used to be a Roman settlement.

       From the 425 souls buried there around 2,000 years ago, ten per cent had been beheaded.

       One explanation is that they were criminals, but some historians think they wouldn’t have been placed with other citizens if that were the case.

       Carl Champness, project manager at Oxford Archaeology, said: “We don’t think it’s to do with criminals or outcasts because they are buried among the others, not always towards the edges or outskirts of the cemetery, and the same sort of care is given to their burial as everyone else.

       “Maybe the sudden death of a young person or an individual for whatever reason？.？.？.？the unexpected nature of the death that may be the reason we are seeing these decapitated individuals.”

       It is possible the removal of the head was part of an ancient ritual.

       Despite all the gruesome finds, Helen believes that in general the people of this nation have treated the dead with respect over the years.

       She said: “I think people have always looked after their loved ones once they have died. The fact that the Romans had ornate cremation urns shows that, as do the cemeteries in Park Street and St James.”

       All the human remains found on the HS2 route will be reburied. Helen said: “We have very strict legislation guiding our teams.

       “If the remains are more than 100 years old the archaeologists carefully remove individuals, research them, and everybody gets reburied.

       Bones broken

       “With the Church of England burial grounds we follow the Church’s requirements to rebury them within consecrated ground.”

       The field digs should be completed this year, but that will not mean the archaeologists’ work is done.

       “Together with historians, they will try to piece together why all these ancestors ended their days in the ways that they did.”

       Helen is excited about what that will tell us. She explained: “It is the biggest series of excavations ever carried out in the UK, and probably Europe.

       “We will be able to build up a great picture of late and early Roman Britain, the Saxons and the Normans and industrial Britain. These opportunities come up rarely.”

       And along the way we may find an answer as to why those people were beheaded or thrown into ditches with their bones broken.

       Helen concluded: “There will no doubt be some more surprising stories to unearth.”

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       Thousands of experts and archaeologists are carefully cataloguing the findings 8

       The findings lie in the path of the route from London to Birmingham 8

       More than 70,000 bodies have been moved to new resting places 8

       A Roman stone head found at Stoke Mandeville, Bucks 8

       A Roman carving from Bucks 8

       Roman pottery from Northants

       HS2 archaeologists uncover vast Roman trading settlement in Northamptonshire