BUILDERS uncovered a skull and and a separate human skeleton yesterday while working on a house extension.

Police were alerted at lunchtime after the remains were found close to where an Anglo-Saxon mass burial site was found last year.

Archaeologists do not think the latest finds in the grounds of a house in The Green area of Norton, near Stockton, date back that far.

Peter Rowe, sites and monuments officer for Tees Archaeology, said: "We were called out after builders found a human skull which had been previously disturbed and then re-buried.

"They also noticed another grave which contained a head and shoulders and is probably attached to arms and legs although the builders have not dug that far.

"We do not think the remains date back to Anglo-Saxon time.

"The site is close to a Friends Meeting House and we feel they probably belong to the Friends.

"It was built in 1661 and closed in the 1960s, so they are from some time in those 300 years, although they are at least 100 years old."

Eighty Dark Ages skeletons were found at nearby Bishopsmill Special School last year.

Mr Rowe will now contact the coroner's office, but said the remains should be left where they are.

A police spokeswoman said: "There are no suspicious circumstances."