It is Bard news for those who believed Shakespeare’s skull has been discovered in Redditch. 
 
 They’re in for a winter of discontent after a court ruled the remains are much ado about nothing. 
 
 In a 7,000 word judgement, the Church of England’s consistory court dismissed claims the skull was snatched from Shakespeare’s tomb. 
 
 Charles Mynors, a consistory court judge and chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester, said there was nothing to link the skull with the age old story it was stolen hundreds of years ago for a £300 wager. 
 
 Therefore, the court has refused to allow tests to be carried out on it. 
 
 Chancellor Mynors said: “I have seen no scholarly or other evidence that comes anywhere near providing any support for the truth of the story.” 
 
 The Sheldon Capel at St Leonards Church, Beoley 
 
 The skull has lain in a vault beneath Sheldon Chapel at St Leonard’s Church, Beoley, Redditch. 
 
 According to folklore, it was pilfered from the Bard’s tomb at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford - 15 miles away. 
 
 Rev. Paul Irving, vicar at St Leonard’s, and two wardens had sought permission for the remains to be temporarily removed and DNA tested with a descendant of Shakespeare’s sister. 
 
 Shakespeare's grave and memorial bust in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford 
 
 A TV production company also planned to make a documentary about the mystery. 
 
 The tall tale was spawned by two magazine articles, printed in 1879 and 1884. 
 
 One revealed art historian Horace Walpole offered £300 for anyone who could obtain Shakespeare’s skull. 
 
 And the story grew, with rumours a Dr Frank Chambers and three others broke into the tomb and stole the item. However, Walpole refused to hand over the cash and it was decided to return it to the tomb. 
 
 The second article, believed to have been penned by Rev. C.J. Langston, vicar of Beoley from 1881 to 1889, claimed the skull was never put back and ended-up at St Leonard’s. 
 
 Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare is buried in the chancel. 
 
 The story has been branded “lurid fiction” by eminent Shakespeare scholar Professor Samuel Schoenbaum and similarly rubbished by Professor Stanley Wells, former chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. He described the magazine reports “Gothic Fiction”. 
 
 Chancellor Mynors agreed. He said: “The skull in the crypt at Beoley is simply that – a disarticulated human skull, of wholly unknown age and gender. 
 
 “There is no evidence as to when, how or why it ended up in the vault beneath the Sheldon chapel. And there is, in particular, nothing whatsoever to link it to William Shakespeare. 
 
 “It follows from the above conclusion that the curiosity as to the skull at Beoley has no factual base whatsoever to justify exhumation, removal or investigation. The whole enterprise is entirely speculative.” 
 
 Shakespeare was at pains to ensure his resting place never fell victim to grave-robbers. His tombstone epitaph warns anyone who tampers it will be forever cursed. 
 
 A board marks the last resting place of William Shakespeare inside Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. 
 
 It reads: “Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, 
 
 “To dig the dust encloased heare’ 
 
 “Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, 
 
 “And curst be he that moves my bones.” ||||| Legend has it, it could be the skull of William Shakespeare - robbed from the playwright's grave to win a £300 bet. 
 
 But clergymen attempting to solve a centuries-old mystery over the identity of a lone skull found in a Worcestershire church vault have been thwarted by a senior church lawyer - who has barred them from carrying out DNA testing. 
 
 According to local folklore, the skull, in a vault beneath Sheldon chapel at St Leonard's Church in Beoley, Redditch , was stolen from the playwright’s tomb in Stratford as part of a wager set by the art historian Horace Walpole in the 1700s. 
 
 Rev Paul Irving, vicar at St Leonard’s, applied to the Church of England’s Consistory Court for permission to temporarily remove the skull for DNA testing, as part of a new documentary investigation into the claims. 
 
 But the application, which was supported by other local clergymen, has been thrown out by Charles Mynors, Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester, who ruled there was nothing to link the skull to Shakespeare. 
 
 The legend is based on two magazine articles, dated 1879 and 1884. The first claimed that in 1769 Walpole offered £300 to anyone who could obtain the skull of Shakespeare, who was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford and whose grave bears an epitaph cursing anyone who should attempt to move his bones. 
 
 It claimed that a Dr Frank Chambers broke into Shakespeare's tomb and stole the skull but then failed to persuade Walpole or any-one else to hand over money for it, so arranged for it to be returned to the tomb. 
 
 "The problem for us now is that the failure to conduct a detailed investigation will result in a higher level of uninformed speculation" Rev Richard Clark, the Team Rector at Holy Trinity Redditch 
 
 However, the second article claimed that this was never done and that ultimately the skull was traced to the church at Beoley, about 15 miles from Stratford. 
 
 The author of the articles is not known but is thought may have Rev C J Langston, vicar of Beoley from 1881 to 1889. 
 
 In a judgment running to nearly 7,000 words, Chancellor Mynors, a barrister, sided with prominent Shakespeare scholars who have rubbished the claims and concluded they read “like a piece of Gothic fiction”. 
 
 He said he had seen “no scholarly or other evidence that comes anywhere near providing any support for the truth of the story” and that there was “nothing whatsoever to link it to William Shakespeare” 
 
 He concluded that "the curiosity as to the skull at Beoley has no factual base whatsoever to justify exhumation, removal or investigation”. 
 
 Photo: ALAMY 
 
 But Rev Richard Clark, the Team Rector at Holy Trinity Redditch, overseeing the parish including Beoley, said he was disappointed by the ruling and that without detailed investigation there was “absolutely no way that we can disprove” the “intriguing” theory that it could be Shakespeare’s. 
 
 He told the Telegraph: “There is this skull sitting there on its own and we would love to know who it is. The ideal for us would have been to get some DNA testing to try to match it up to see if it’s part of one of the skeletons that’s down there or who or what it might be.” 
 
 He said the Diocesan Advisory Committee had been happy with the plan and it was only the Diocesan Chancellor who objected. 
 
 “While I understand we don’t want people on fishing expeditions mucking about with human remains, the problem for us now is that the failure to conduct a detailed investigation will result in a higher level of uninformed speculation - whereas if we had the investigation done, then it would settle the matter once and for all.” ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
– Like to size up the cranium that once held the brain behind Macbeth, Hamlet, and roughly 1,500 words we still use today? Well, it's bad news for you—and anyone who believes William Shakespeare's skull is lying under a small village chapel in England, the Birmingham Mail reports. Seems a clergyman at St. Leonard's Church in Beoley, Redditch, asked to have the skull there removed for a quick DNA test and saw his request denied. "The curiosity as to the skull at Beoley has no factual base whatsoever to justify exhumation, removal, or investigation," says church lawyer Charles Mynors, who issued the denial in a nearly 7,000-word report. "The whole enterprise is entirely speculative." Shakespeare scholars are on his side, but local folklore and two mysterious articles tell a different tale. Dated 1879 and 1884, the anonymous articles claim that a doctor dug up Shakespeare's skull to win a reward offered by an art historian in 1769, the Telegraph reports. But after the doctor couldn't get his money, the skull was buried in a vault under St. Leonard's Church. With the Rev. Paul Irving's request for a DNA test now denied, area clergymen are licking their wounds: "There is this skull sitting there on its own and we would love to know who it is," says a reverend who oversees the Beoley church. "The problem for us now is that the failure to conduct a detailed investigation will result in a higher level of uninformed speculation." As it happens, Shakespeare's tombstone epitaph at Stratford-upon-Avon includes a warning against grave-robbers: "Bleste be the man that spares thes stones," it reads in part. "And curst be he that moves my bones." (Researchers have credited Shakespeare with a new play.)