Chase Vault

The Chase vault in the graveyard of Christ Church Parish Church is a stone burial chamber that between 1812 and 1820 was opened several times for burials and found each time with the lead coffins inside moved out of position, despite the entrance being sealed with cement and the governor's own seal. After the last opening the coffins were removed and buried elsewhere and the vault has stood empty since.

Background

The moving coffins story is unverified, and investigators think it may have no real events behind it. It first appeared in print in 1833, in James Edward Alexander's Transatlantic Sketches. According to the accounts, the vault received Goddard in 1807, two-year-old Ann Maria Chase in 1808, her sister Dorcas, aged 12, in 1812, and their father Thomas Chase late in 1812. The folklorist Andrew Lang searched the Christ Church burial register and contemporary Barbados newspapers and found nothing to support the tale, apart from an unpublished account by a Nathan Lucas. When Radford examined the vault in 2019, its bricks were intact.

Source: Wikipedia, "Chase Vault"

What's there

• The empty vault - the chamber left open after the coffins were removed.
• The parish church - the building the graveyard belongs to.
• The recorded openings - the sequence of documented inspections between 1812 and 1820.
• The graveyard - the burials around the vault on the ridge above Oistins.

When to go

December to May is the dry season. The graveyard is open daylight hours. Services take priority at the church.

Good to know

There is nothing to see but an empty stone chamber; the interest is entirely the story. Accounts of the events vary considerably between sources. It is an active churchyard and behaviour matters.

Nearby

Oistins is south, and South Point is southeast.

Key facts