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A Note on Footstones

Footstones were common in the 17th and 18th centuries. Graves around these times often had two stones, a large one recording the name, burial date and epitaph and a smaller footstone that just has the person's initials and the date they died. A fine example of footstone and headstone can be seen with the Abell grave number 16, as shown in the photograph on the left. The footstone was usually about eight feet away from the headstone but, sadly, many footstones have been moved away from their original graves and are now proped up against the churchyard wall. This was probably because as time progressed the footstone became overgrown and health and safety recommended that the footstones be moved to prevent people from falling over them.

There are a small number of "graves" identified by the 1983 survey that now may just be out of place footstones. We will point possible footstones out as well as try to link them with there correct headstone.

The Graves

As the burial record of where people were buried was stolen many years ago, the information presented here is based on a survey of the churchyard from 1983, inscriptions recorded by Bigland in the 18th century, Census data and studies of the churchyard made since Autumn 2004 by our research team. Every attempt has been made to ensure that the information is correct. The first 445 gravestones are the same as those on the 1983 survey conducted by the Women's Institute. There are also a number of inscriptions inside, mounted on walls and on flat stones in the floor.

We have also identified a number of stones that have been used elsewhere in the churchyard that may have originally been headstones. Finally, there is a list of graves we know exist (because the inscription has been recorded at some point in time) but haven't been able to find them. The climate here can be hard on headstones and, due to the nature of the type of stone used, it is not uncommon for sections of some of the older stones to be unreadable.

Each gravestone entry is in the following format. Firstly, there is the grave's identification number followed by its location and will either be G (churchyard), N (nave), C (chancel), ST (south transept) or NT (north transept). You will need to know both the number and location if you want to find the grave again using the browse page. Next is a picture of the grave. The next column shows who is buried in the grave and the final column gives the inscription on the actual gravestone. Question marks are written whenever text is unclear or not known. Information written in square brackets (as shown below for grave 59G) should be treated with caution as it may not be correct. Green ticks are placed next to an entry to indicate that the person has a corresponding entry in the parish records. We are unable to confirm entries after 1924 and only the first 150 graves have been checked so far.

59 G [ Isaac HOOPER, died March 3 1834, aged 4 months.] [ Jeremiah HOOPER, died April 7 1836, aged 10 months.] Hester HOOPER, died May 7 1861, aged 66. James HOOPER, died February 16 1875, aged 81. In memory of Hester. Wife of James Hooper of this Parish who died May 7th 1861. Aged 66 years Also of two of her children Who died in their infancy Also of the above James Hester Hooper who died Feb. 16th 1875. Aged 81 years.

Inscription Notes

Many inscriptions feature text that was written in a particular way at the time. In latin, words ending in a double 'i' are often written as 'ij'. Also, upper case 'F's were written as 'ff' and are transcribed as 'F' to avoid confusion.

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge the work of Elizabeth Janson in starting us on this mammoth project. She spent many months delving through church records. If you would like to contact Ms. Janson click here.

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