A wall memorial dating to 1824 inside St Mary the Virgin Church, Westwood, near Bradford on Avon Wiltshire, notes the presence of a vault. BACAS was asked to investigate whether this vault did indeed lie beneath the floor of the church.
The work was carried out in August 2019 using resistivity profiling inside and outside the church. The results demonstrated the presence of several vaults: two under the nave near to the memorial, possibly linked or divided by a wall and approximately 1.5m deep, which may be connected with the wall memorial. Another vault was located under the chancel, 1.75m deep. There appears to be no record of this vault or its occupant. A further, deeper void was found below the tower, which may be a possible bell pit. An extra profile was taken just outside the church along the south wall. The results of this show the footings of the chancel, chancel arch and nave, together with the stone base of a flat grave slab, possibly filled with earth but without a masonry lining.
This was the first time BACAS had carried out a geophysical survey inside a church. Their methodology used inside the Roman Baths at Bath, proved to be successful at Westwood too.