Relatives asked to come forward ahead of mass exhumation of 16,000 bodies

Research suggests 16,000 bodies will have to be dug up in the Trinity Burial Ground to make way for a £129m to £192m road widening scheme.

The proposed route of the new-look Castle Street cuts through a third of the cemetery.

The graveyard served Holy Trinity Church after 1783 when its own cemetery directly outside the church ran out of space.

It was used until 1861 when it was closed again for lack of space.

The Highways Agency said there was no legal obligation to contact relatives of burials that were over 100 years old, but they felt it was “the right thing to do.”

Project manager James Holmes said: “We are doing everything we can to ensure that the road improvement work impacting the Trinity Burial Ground is managed respectfully, with full care and due consideration.”

The remains will be removed by archeologists before being reburied. Some may be analysed to provide information about life in Hull during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Work in the burial ground, thought to be the largest mass exhumation to be conducted outside of London, is expected to start in 2016/17.