CASE STUDIES

The secret garden at Babraham Campus, Cambridge

How a SUMOplus + survey revealed more than anyone expected!

SUMO Geophysics conducted a SUMO plus+ Survey at the Babraham Campus in Cambridge. The SUMOplus+ survey is an advanced level survey. This combines a SUMO Utility Survey with a detailed Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey. This combination allows SUMO to asses a range of ‘anomalies’ that may be present on a site. In this case study, the client suspected there was a buried fuel tank. This was unlikely to have been identified by a standard utility survey.

The process and results:

SUMO surveyed a 1m orthogonal grid with our Dual Frequency Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) equipment.

This combines 300MHz and 800MHz antennas.

The data was post-processed and the fuel tank was located approximately 30m away from the main building. But once we started processing the data further we located more than expected…

The Secret Garden Discovery:

In front of the building, an interesting ‘anomaly’ was identified within the GPR data. The dimensions of the anomaly were approximately 40m x 14m and appeared to show an ornate design. After research and interpretation, we believed that we had located the historic formal gardens.

At SUMO we utilise the latest non-invasive technology. This includes one of the only High-Density GPR systems in the UK. High-Density GPR equipment collects data readings at 8cm intervals. This means SUMO could greatly improve the resolution of the previous 1m x 1m survey.

SUMO Geophysics returned to the site to investigate the garden area further and the results that we collected were outstanding…

High-Density GPR timeslice showing a detailed layout of the formal garden.

The above image clearly shows the areas of compacted ground or walls remaining in the grounds from the complex formal garden design. The extent of the formal garden was approximately 40m x 14m and the depth of the features was extremely shallow at 0.2m below the ground.