Construction workers have stumbled across the tombs of five "lost" archbishops of Canterbury dating back to the 1600s during a museum refurbishment.

Some 30 lead coffins were found as builders tried to flatten the floor in the chancel of St Mary-at-Lambeth to create an exhibition area for the Garden Museum, next to Lambeth Palace.

But the workers cut a six-inch hole in the floor by accident and then used a mobile phone on a stick to film a flight of stairs leading down to a hidden vault.

The coffins were found lying on top of each other alongside an archbishop's mitre, a symbol of office similar to a crown, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

Two of the coffins bore metal plates with the names of Richard Bancroft (who served from 1604 to 1610), and John Moore (1783 to 1805).

The nameplate of Moore's wife, Catherine, was also found.

The discovery solves a mystery over the remains of the archbishops who were recorded as being buried at the church.

Historians were unaware of the exact location of their tombs, and had presumed that their vault filled in and the coffins were destroyed when the church was heavily reconstructed in 1851.