TURKEY bones dating back to the 16th century have been discovered at an ancient Runcorn tourist attraction.

Norton Priory Museum is well known for its collection of human skeletons but the excavations also revealed a vast collection of bird bones.

Turkeys first arrived in England during the early 1500s so it is possible that these bones represent some of the first turkeys to be consumed in this country.

English navigator William Strickland is generally credited with introducing the turkey into England via Spain in the early 16th century.

It soon became popular with the wealthy population in England as Henry VIII is thought to have been among the first to change from eating the usual Tudor favourites of swan, goose, peacock and boar’s head in favour of the newly arrived bird.

A Norton Priory spokesman said: “It seems that the canons of Norton Priory were also keen to adopt the new fashion.

“It wasn’t just the Tudors who were enjoying fowl on their dinner plates. “We also know that in 1522 a servant of the priory, ‘William the joiner’ fattened the 'geese and capons of the monastery for which he receives a portion of food suitable for this'."

Little research has been done on bird and animal bones found on monastic sites so Norton Priory has teamed up with researchers at the University of Sheffield to investigate the 12,000 plus fragments of bones found during excavations from 1970 to 1987.

The researchers at Sheffield University are working their way through the Norton Priory collection of animal bone which includes lots of sheep, pig and cattle and the results will be out in the New Year.