Historic English church suffered a grave collapse that revealed one 300-year-old secret

England's centuries-old churches hold countless stories of the families who built them.

But sometimes those stories remain hidden for generations.

And a historic English church suffered a grave collapse that revealed one 300-year-old secret.

Remembrance Sunday gets unexpected visitor from the 1700s

All Saints Church in Martock, Somerset has stood since the 13th century as a monument to faith and community in southwest England.

The Grade I listed building survived Oliver Cromwell's troops in 1645 when they used it as a billet after the Battle of Bridgwater.

Its stunning four-stage tower completed around 1505 dominates the village skyline.

But nothing in the church's 800-year history prepared Rev. Paul Fillery for what happened on Saturday, November 8.

The day before Remembrance Sunday services, a 12-foot wide hole suddenly opened in the churchyard near the entrance.

What looked like a sinkhole turned out to be something far more fascinating.

An 18th-century box tomb had collapsed through the roof of a family vault that nobody alive today knew existed.

"The 300-year-old tomb had caved quite suddenly into a large sinkhole," Fillery told the BBC.¹

The collapse exposed stone walls made from Ham stone, a distinctive limestone from quarries 25 kilometers away at Ham Hill.

Stone shelves lined the vault walls where family members' coffins once rested.

Inside lay the remains of Rev. Charles Lewis, a local church leader who died in the mid-18th century.²

His wife and five other adult family members were buried alongside him.

Two children completed the family group – one died at age 6, the other as an infant.

When rich families wanted everyone to know they were rich

Box tombs weren't graves at all.

They were monuments – ornate stone structures placed above ground as "a very grand gravestone" according to Fillery.³

The actual burials sat in vaults beneath the earth.

These elaborate displays served one purpose: announcing wealth and status to everyone who walked through the churchyard.

"These box tombs you see in churchyards are really a statement saying, 'these are significant people buried here underneath the ground,'" Fillery explained.⁴

The Ham stone construction alone would have cost a fortune.

This distinctive limestone came from quarries that supplied churches and manor houses across South Somerset for their finest decorative work.

Masons crafted precisely fitted stones with brackets carved directly into walls for the coffin shelves.

The vault featured a solid floor and ceiling designed to last centuries.

Local historians believe the Pittard family built this monument to their success.

They ran a thriving leather business in Martock during the 18th century.

That business still exists today as Pittards plc, established in nearby Yeovil in 1826, now operating tanneries in the UK and Ethiopia with over 1,000 employees.

The original Pittard fortune came from Somerset's regional wool and leather trade routes when tanning paid extremely well in market villages.

Structural failure exposes burial practices nobody expected

Rev. Fillery said the collapse resulted from structural failure, not weather or soil erosion as initially reported.

"The weight of the box tomb on the weakened ceiling led to the whole thing collapsing through the ceiling of the vault and creating a very large hole," he told Fox News Digital.⁵

The diocese building advisor had never seen anything like it.

"Very, very rare," Fillery said.⁶

The destruction reduced the ornate monument to rubble, making its memorial inscription impossible to read.

All Saints Church has several other box tombs in the churchyard.

None show signs of similar structural problems.

Martock Parish Council immediately secured the site with safety barriers.

Questions remain about whether surrounding graves suffered damage or if the ground remains unstable.

Restoring the vault and the Grade II-listed tomb will cost tens of thousands of pounds.

The church is accepting donations for the cause.

The dramatic timing – one day before Remembrance Sunday when families and veterans gather at the churchyard – amplified the shock for local residents.

Many had no idea crypts existed beneath their feet.

Fillery plans to hold a brief service at the grave site once restoration work completes.

"When it is all done, I propose holding a brief service at the grave site to commend them once again to God and to a peaceful rest in the days and years to come," he said.⁷

The collapse opened an unexpected window into 18th-century burial practices and social hierarchy.

In that era, proximity to the church nave signaled both faith and wealth.

The vault's elaborate construction shows how the Pittard family wanted their success remembered for generations.

They succeeded – though probably not in the way they imagined when they sealed that vault 300 years ago.

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¹ Rev. Paul Fillery, quoted in "Tomb collapse exposes underground crypt from 1700s," BBC News, November 10, 2025.

² Andrea Margolis, "Historic church suffers 'incredibly rare' grave collapse, revealing ancient family vault," Fox News, November 26, 2025.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Kaleena Fraga, "An 18th-Century Tomb Just Collapsed In An English Churchyard — And Revealed A Mysterious Crypt Hidden Underneath," AllThatsInteresting.com, November 13, 2025.

⁵ Margolis, Fox News.

⁶ Fraga, AllThatsInteresting.com.

⁷ Margolis, Fox News.