The Use of Ground Penetrating Radar to Investigate a Churchyard Burial Plot

Many cemeteries have limited space and can often contain unmarked and undocumented graves. Encountering unmarked burials, or establishing locations free from burials, can be a problem. This case study reports an investigation of the area around a family burial plot in the cemetery of a church in rural Derbyshire, England, where a number of burials have taken place but where detailed records of the locations and numbers of graves were uncertain. The cemetery investigated is associated with a church which has existed since at least the 1200's, and the burial plot investigated has had a number of known burials from the 1800's onwards. The age of the cemetery and the lack of records meant that the exact details of the locations, depths and size of graves in the plot were unknown. The investigation used a GSSI SIR-2000 system with 900MHz and 400MHz antennas to successfully identify and confirm the location of a number of buried graves in the plot, at depths up to approximately 1.5m. This paper describes the challenges faced during the investigation, providing recommendations on appropriate site methodology and conclusions on appropriate data processing and presentation techniques.