Wednesday 1^st March 2017

After a break last week we were back around the table typing up more Grave reference sheets today. Every session we do we find ourselves chasing queries, wondering why so-and-so is buried with that other person, or why there’s no inscription for someone. Then there are anomalies to check against the church records. We find having the genealogical database invaluable in helping us out with a lot of these queries.  

Photo by Sue Stearn

Well, Storm Doris wreaked havoc last week – A large tree blew down over the churchyard. Incredibly, like that old Buster Keaton silent movie where a building falls down and misses him, simply because he is where the doorway was as the wall falls over him, there’s a headstone that ended up totally unscathed in the narrow space between two big branches.  

Photo by Sue Stearn

We’re not yet sure about the other headstones that are now under the branches, but we’re hoping when the tree is cleared away that they will be equally untouched.

We’re glad we have all the photos of the  headstones before this happened – so there’s another reason for doing the survey! It’s a timely reminder that graveyards are as vulnerable as any other heritage site to the vagaries of nature as well as intervention of people.

Jane Lunnon