Elgar lived in Hereford from 1904 to 1911, a period of nearly eight years. A period when much of his finest work was composed and he was achieving widespread public recognition. A statue to the composer was erected in the north-east of the Cathedral Close, Hereford, in front of the Precentor’s House,

In order to assess the significance of archaeological remains prior to the erection of the statue, the excavation of a single trench began on Wednesday May 25^th 2005, and finished on Friday June 3rd, with the final re-interment of the excavated human remains taking place beneath the same site on Monday 13^thJune. 

No articulated human remains were recovered from the site.  Instead, the  good scattering of disarticulated, mainly fragmentary, bones was in keeping with the upper layers being those of levelling and landscaping in the 18^th and 19^th centuries  after the cemetery had been closed. The juxtaposition of medieval and post-medieval artefacts in the lower ones is also evidence of redeposition, possibly by grave digging, and certainly by modern root action. Diagnostic pieces of bone included examples of the right supra-orbital margin from two human skulls. 

The fragments of human jaw containing teeth were identified by Dr Janice Scott, a dentist. This one, which shows clear evidence of an abscess, is a juvenile.