Historians have said that the chances of finding the remains of King Harold in Waltham Abbey during a planned search are "extremely minute".

The search is set to be undertaken by Oval Films at the Abbey Gardens in the grounds of The Holy Cross and St Lawrence Church in the next two weeks.

The team of geologists previously discovered the remains of Richard III beneath a car park in Leicester in 2012.

The team wll carry out a ground-penetrating radar scan, which will reveal whether there are human remains at the location.

However, according to the Chairman of Waltham Abbey Historical Society, Chris Sumner, the chance of identifying the remains as King Harold are very slim.

He said: “The site that they will search for the remains has been disturbed so many times by building works that it will prove very unlikely that the remains will be located.

The search is being sponsored by author Peter Burke, who has written two historical novels.

The king is widely believed to have been killed at the Battle of Hastings, but the author has dedicated years researching his belief that the monarch is buried near the 1090 East Wall in Abbey Gardens, which he says has symbols engraved on it.

Oval Films were due to start the search yesterday, but will now begin within a fortnight when a licence has been secured.

For more on this story, see this week's Guardian - out Thursday