EDO6704 - St Mary's churchyard, Charminster; ground penetrating radar survey 2012

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by the Environment Agency to undertake a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey on land adjacent to and east of St Mary’s Church, Charminster in connection with a proposed flood defence scheme. The purpose of the survey was to investigate the possible presence of crypts or vaults that may have been liable to subsidence or collapse. The survey was carried out using a GSSI cart-based GPR system with a shielded antenna of 300MHz central frequency in wet weather conditions. A number of anomalies were revealed. These included probable unmarked graves lying to the east and north of the church in areas where there were marked graves. Survey results from a gravestone overlying a known crypt were used as a benchmark for other possible crypts, however there were no other comparable results. This indicated that there were unlikely to be undetected crypts or vaults.