EDO5953 - Lambert Tomb, St Michael's Church, Winterbourne Steepleton; evaluation 2005

A test pit was excavated by hand through the highest point of the tomb, agains the exterior of the north wall of the church. The pit was intended to be 1m by 1m in size but this was reduced to 1m by 0.6m to leave the remains of a stone retaining wall discovered at the southern end in situ. Excavation halted when structural remains were encountered. The test pit showed that the Lambert tomb was clearly a burial vault comprising a brick vault capped with clay and encased in an earthen mound, with stone retaining walls and roof at the southern end where it joined the north wall of the church. The junction was not exposed but, as the brick vault was originally accessed from within the church, it can be assumed that it butted against the church wall. The North Chapel was demolished in 1688, a terminus post quem for the construction of the tomb. The excavation indicated that it was a single period of construction in the eighteenth century; the date 1764 is inscribed on a central slab.