The mystery of a little girl buried beneath historic Eastbrook Hall may be a little nearer being solved today as local historians came forward to help the coroner.

Contractors working on the hall found the remains of the brown-haired girl, aged between four and six, in a tiny coffin.

The construction company, Hamm, is working on the £8.5 million redevelopment of the hall in Leeds Road, Bradford, into prestigious. apartments.

The little girl's coffin was intact and carried a plaque with the date of 1849.

A small wooden paddle was found near her remains. A second disintegrating coffin and the remains of a man were found deeper in the ground.

Police have said there are no suspicious circumstances and a spokesman from the coroner's office said inquiries were continuing.

The landmark hall was built in 1904 on the site of a former chapel and burial ground.

A letter from the Council about the burial ground has been passed on to the office of coroner Roger Whittaker by local historian Andrew Bolt.

The letter, dated March 1901, shows 880 bodies in Council graves were removed from the site for reburial in Bowling Cemetery.

But it indicates 13 bodies were left behind - nine adults and four children who had been buried there privately.

Andrew Bolt, 35, of Hazelhurst Road, Bradford, who was handed the letter several years ago, said: "We wanted the little girl to be reburied with a name. It seems the right thing to do. "

Another local historian, Steven Spencer, of Low Moor, who is also passing information to the coroner, has uncovered the names of two girls aged six and eight and a six-year-old boy who died in 1849 and are on the chapel burial register.

He says the information shows the father of the six-year-old girl was a grocer and says the wooden implement found near her remains looks like a butter pat - the implement once used for forming butter into blocks.

Eastbrook Wesleyan Chapel was surrounded by fields when its first service was held in 1825. The grand hall which replaced it was described as the Methodist cathedral of the north when it opened in 1904. But Eastbrook Hall shut in 1986 facing a huge bill to repair dry rot.

The interior was badly damaged by fire in 1996 but is now being transformed into a courtyard development of 68 apartments.

Many of them have already been sold to investors.