Geophysical Survey of St Mary’s Church, Swainswick, Bath

This report sets out the geophysical survey at St Mary’s Church, Swainswick, Bath. This aimed to establish the presence of a tomb, and potentially coffins present below the ledger stone marked as John Wood the Elder within the side chancelry to the north-east of the church.

The geophysical survey was undertaken on 10th November 2022. Access to conduct a good survey area was restricted by the presence of church fixtures and the size of the space to be surveyed. Regardless, a GPR survey was considered to be the most suitable technique for establishing the answers to the survey questions. Gradiometer and earth resistance survey are unsuitable as the ledgerstones are within the church and the large amount of ferrous material associated with plumbing and fixtures within the church renders these survey techniques both impractical and uninformative.

The survey was undertaken by Alexander Birkett, Dr. Stuart J. Prior and Dr. Konstantinos Trimmis, from the University of Bristol’s Department of Anthropology and Archaeology This report was written by Alexander Birkett.

This survey identified numerous other burial vaults or coffins present across the side aisle, and to the east of the John Wood the Elder ledger stone. No clear void or tomb is present, but faint signals of a thinly lined tomb filled with heavily compacted material may be present.