Gruesome mystery of the 2,000 year old human skulls dug up in Chorlton front garden

It's not every day a spot of routine garden maintenance turns into a police investigation, or fears your house might have been built on an ancient burial ground. But that's exactly what happened to one Chorlton man in 2010.

You would be forgiven for thinking this was some macabre Halloween tall story, or the beginning of a horror movie like The Exorcist, which begins with the discovery of ancient relics during an archaeological dig. but back in April 2010, Matthew McClelland made a particularly gruesome discovery in his own front garden.

Carrying out a big of digging in his garden, he was horrified to see a skull staring back at him from a hole he had just created with his spade. Within hours of telling the police, officers had sealed off his garden and mounted a 24-hour watch over his home in Ivygreen Road, Chorlton. His worst nightmares looked to be coming true when as the police investigation pulled a second human head from the earth.

Matthew began to fear he would soon become the chief suspect in a criminal investigation. Thankfully, officers soon got to the bottom of the mystery after discovering that the remains dated back to before he was even born - by around 2,000 years.

Matthew, who was working as a manager at Manchester University, said: "At first I thought it might not be real but it was quite scary as well. It was a bit peculiar because neither skull had lower jaws."

The forensic teams cordoned off the garden while they investigated the site. They even erected a tent to prevent the public seeing what they believed could be a grisly crime scene.

Matthew who lived with a housemate, said: "It was a weird feeling, thinking that we might be under suspicion for murder."

Then police found the second skull. Again