The exhumation is not the first during the development of the controversial rail link. In 2017 an estimated 60,000 bodies were disinterred from a former burial site at Euston station. The bodies were later reburied at Brookwood cemetery in Surrey.
The ancient church was renovated in the 13th, 14th and 17th centuries. It played a central role in the community and was subject to a variety of extensions and the construction of a brick bell tower.
The old church was abandoned and fell into disrepair following the construction of a new church closer to the centre of the village in the 1880s. In 1966 the building was considered so dangerous that the Royal Engineers were drafted in to demolish it.