Bodies under the floorboards, racial tension, tobacco — it's all part of the St. Peter's Church story, chronicled in a new documentary about the church.

The documentary produced by St. George's resident and filmmaker Lucinda Spurling premiered this month at the World Heritage Centre at Penno's Wharf.

Ms Spurling, of Afflare Films, was commissioned by the church to make the film to highlight its importance in Bermuda history.

"My family have been members of the church for several generations," said Ms Spurling. "My great grandfather Sir Stanley Spurling helped organise the upgrades in the 1950s."

A few years ago St. George's was designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.

St. Peter's Church was a big part of that designation. It was built in 1612 and is now the oldest continuously used Anglican church in the world.

The original building, made of wood and thatch, was replaced with a stone church in 1713.

The film highlighted the fact that over the years the church building has had a number of purposes in addition to being a place of worship, including acting as a place for drying tobacco, and as a court room.

It was also here that Bermuda's Parliament, the third oldest in the world, met in 1620.

Ms Spurling's 30-minute documentary features a number of experts on St. George's history including Michael Jarvis who wrote 'Bermuda's Architectural Heritage: St. George's' and most recently 'In The Eye of All Trade'.

One of the things that is brought across in the movie is how special it is that the building not only still exists, but that it is still used for worship.

Dr. Jarvis, who is an associate professor at the University of Rochester said: "What a thrill and awe to attend a service and sit in perhaps the same pew that your grandparents, great grandparents and perhaps great great grand sat in."

The film also featured archaeologist Brent Fortenberry, Rev. David Raths the current vicar at the church and Chairman of the Friends of St. Peter's Rev. Erskine C. Simmons.

"Every phase of history is represented in this church," said Rev. Simmons.

For example, in the church registers black parishioners are listed as 'slaves' or 'free'. When emancipation came in 1834, a simple line was drawn in the book, showing that all black Bermudians recorded after the line were free.

Arguably, one of the most interesting parts of the documentary is footage of an archaeological dig carried out in the church in August 2008 conducted by Mr. Fortenberry and a team from Boston University.

The dig was carried out in a two-foot gap under the floorboards of the church. Archaeologists crawled on their stomachs in the dimly lit space for part of the way to carry out their work.

They were surprised during the dig to come upon two bodies that had been interred under the church. Copper name plates that had once rested on the coffins identified them as Sir Jacob Wheate, who died of Yellow Fever in 1783, and Gov. George James Bruere.

Gov. Bruere was in charge of Bermuda at the time of the infamous gunpowder plot during the American Revolutionary War, when a stash of gunpowder was plundered from the Island and then used to devastating effect against the British forces.

He died in September 1780. The bodies presented a mystery to historians, as a law had been passed by the time of their internment forbidding people from being buried under the church.

The mystery of why the bodies were put there has not yet been solved.

Ms Spurling said filming under the church was not without its challenges.

"It was hot down there!" said Ms Spurling. "My camera man, Andrew Kirkpatrick, filmed Brent Fortenberry in August, last year.

"We weren't there when they found the skeletons as that happened before we started the project.

"You can actually get down there underneath the church through several trap doors in the floor of the church."

Ms Spurling has also produced several other films including 'Rare Bird' (2006) and 'The Lion and the Mouse' (2009).

'The Lion and the Mouse' has won several awards including an Audience Award at the Bermuda International Film Festival 2010, A National Trust Awareness Award, and The Doreen Lightbourn/ Lionel Pearman Award. At international film festivals, it won The Golden Reel Award at the Nevada Film Festival, A Silver Remi Award at Worldfest Houston, and The Award of Excellence at Indie Fest.

'The Lion and the Mouse' was also picked up by a distributor, Janson Media who is working to market it internationally.

The film was broadcast on PBS on Virginia stations twice at the end of April and will soon be screened on PBS stations all over the nation.

If you would like to know more about St. Peter's Church, the church is offering a special guided graveyard tour on Thursday, June 24 at 6.30 p.m. It will last for one hour.

Highlights of the tour will include the graves of: Bermudian Pilot Jemmy Darrell who died in 1815; Midshipman Richard Sutherland Dale, an American Naval officer who was mortally wounded during the last naval battle of the War of 1812; Anne Willing Bingham, said to be the most beautiful woman in Philadelphia and important during the American Revolution, who died here in 1801 at the age of 36; and Sir Richard Sharples, Governor of Bermuda, and his ADC, Captain Hugh Sayers, Welsh Guards, who were assassinated in 1973 in the grounds of Government House and were buried there at the request of their families.

'St. Peter's' the DVD, is available at the church office for $25. All proceeds from the sale of the DVD go to the church. For more information contact the church on 297-2459.