General Discussion

Can we agree on that?

In Coll's final report:

"Neither grave appears to be full sized....The surprising result of the GPR survey is that there is no evidence for even a moderately sized family vault."

"As for the grave presumed to be that of William Shakespeare (grave 2) this appears at first sight to be
unnaturally short since, neither it nor any of the other family graves appear to extend into the area
beneath the altar step. From figures 10 and 13 this grave does not appear large enough to contain an
adult male and the evidence could potentially be construed, as has been suggested, that the grave does not
contain a burial."

"The results of the GPR investigation have laid to rest a number of historical myths about the Shakespeare
graves. The data are consistent with a historical tale which was originally thought unlikely since the data
confirm that the grave thought to be that of William Shakespeare has been partially cut across by another
feature, presumably in an attempt to restore the stability of the floor. The data also show that the
Shakespeare family was not buried in a traditional vault, although some of the area is delineated by
brickwork but in a discrete line of simple shallow graves. The use of a very high frequency antenna has
allowed the deduction that burial for each of the five members of the family was in a shroud, not in a
coffin from the absence of small metal artefacts in the area of their interment. Comparison of the data for
the central three graves suggests that there may be foundation to the story of Susanna Shakespeare's grave
being disturbed even if it is not possible to conclude whether she was exhumed and subsequently reinterred
elsewhere. "

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/231752969.pdf