Saturday 23 June 2018

Sue Stearn writes: 

Well  it was that time of year again for St Mary’s very popular churchyard tours. 27 people attended and this year’s title was ‘War and Peace, Embsay and Eastby in the Great War’

Jane Lunnon and David Turner our expert family history researchers lead the tours, bringing to life past lives of those buried in the churchyard. 

Including a Belgian refugee called Leopold who died from TB at Eastby Sanatorium in 1917. Interestingly Dr Catherine Arnott who cared for him was a Suffragette and her sister a Suffragist. They must have had some interesting conversations over the dinner table. The Suffragettes' motto was ‘action not words’ ; hence the arson and bombing attacks as part of their campaign for the right for women to vote. Suffragists used a more gentle approach by lobbying MP’s and others.

We put together a small display of two of the 32 Stonemasons whose work is represented at St Mary’s. They were John Lowe of Skipton, who specialised in lead lettering, and who died in 1917, and Henry Crosley, who worked in sandstone and specialised in bold carving.

Example of the work of stone mason, John Lowe

While David and Jane lead the tours, Jennifer and Sue provided refreshments, and yes, Jen made a very large chocolate cake, which had all been eaten by lunch time! We also dog-sat a lovely greyhound called Thomas, while his owner went on a tour.

Yet another successful day and lots of positive feedback.

Sue Stearn