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Churchyards
Death, remembrance, sculpture, churchyards are unsurpassed as places of history and memory. They possess considerable time-depth, and form the setting of many the nation’s greatest buildings. Churchyards are everywhere, numbered in their thousands. This sheer ubiquity might explain why they have received so little attention. Compared with Scotland and the United States, where exhaustive research has taken place, England’s graveyards are largely overlooked. There is so much awaiting discovery.
Memorials range from the grandest mausolea to the humblest of stones and wooden markers. From the 17th century on, concern was being expressed for burial inside the church. From the 18th century, outdoor memorials started to become the preferred something that the Georgian classical revival very much encouraged. More levels of society sought remembrance through tombstones. Headstones sported imagery and many of these form the earliest tangible evidence of family history. Craftsmanship created beautiful imagery, and local materials and customs led to regionally distinctive kinds of memorial.
Some churchyards have ancient yew others have intriguing structures, like parish stocks, charnel houses and medieval crosses. And beneath the grass lie untold generations of past parishioners, lying in the shadow of the church until the Day of Judgment. There is much to discover in churchyards – one of England’s greatest creations.
Memorials range from the grandest mausolea to the humblest of stones and wooden markers. From the 17th century on, concern was being expressed for burial inside the church. From the 18th century, outdoor memorials started to become the preferred something that the Georgian classical revival very much encouraged. More levels of society sought remembrance through tombstones. Headstones sported imagery and many of these form the earliest tangible evidence of family history. Craftsmanship created beautiful imagery, and local materials and customs led to regionally distinctive kinds of memorial.
Some churchyards have ancient yew others have intriguing structures, like parish stocks, charnel houses and medieval crosses. And beneath the grass lie untold generations of past parishioners, lying in the shadow of the church until the Day of Judgment. There is much to discover in churchyards – one of England’s greatest creations.
- GenresHistory
64 pages, Paperback
Published November 15, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 9, 2022
This informative and attractive book is part of Amberley Publishing’s Britain’s Heritage series and it is a treasure trove of information and anecdotes about England’s churchyards. There is an introduction and 7 short chapters accompanied by informative, wonderful colour photos
I currently live in deepest Kent and am lucky enough to be surrounded by ancient churches and their churchyards. The casual passer by may see them as merely picturesque with tall yew trees which may predate the church itself, headstones clustered together for company and now, more frequently, may also have a wild patch to encourage flora and fauna.
However, I see them as the repository of a community’s history in that you can often trace local families through what they have left behind for posterity. These may be in the form of mausolea, large monuments, headstones or perhaps only an entry in the Burial Register as a wooden marker has rotted away. As the blurb on the back says ‘beneath the grass lie untold generations of past parishioners, lying in the shadow of the church until the Day of Judgement.’
In the introduction the author, Roger Bowdler, reminds us that there are 10,000 churchyards in England and defines a churchyard as ‘an enclosed space around a place of worship, devoted to burial and administered by the parish.’ He also discusses the diversity and variety of memorials that may be found in them and also the pleasure in discovering them. He states that his intention is to set out to explain ’why we should cherish our graveyards, and do everything in our power to ward off decay and collapse ‘and he also quotes from Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy on a Country Churchyard’ and ends by saying that ‘churchyards are some of the most life affirming places of all.’ And I would heartily agree.
When I am out church crawling, steeple chasing or symbol searching, I always find it sad to see so many headstones that, due to weathering, erosion or damage are now virtually blank with inscriptions, epitaphs or symbols now lost.
The author gives the history of churchyards from 1700 and then from 1700 onwards. These 2 chapters begin with Roman Britain, then the Anglo Saxons and then onto 1700. There is much fascinating information and Bowdler mentions the surviving remnants of pre Christian memorials and the connection between ancient pagan sites and churchyards. He cites the impressive 25 feet tall standing stone at Rudston in East Yorkshire as evidence. Also, the fragments of Anglo Saxon churchyard monuments at All Saints, Bakewell which I have seen for myself. There is also a photo of what may possibly be the earliest, identified and dated headstone in England which is dated 1518.
According to Bowdler, the average county churchyard will contain ‘thousands of bodies deposited over a millennia or more’ which explains why the ground in some churchyards seems higher than the path although there aren’t that there many memorials in them.
In the second chapter on churchyards after 1700, the urban churchyard and its inability to cope with the increasing urban population became a crisis. And so they were closed after the 1880s and converted into parks with the headstones cowering along its edges. But despite the creation of the great garden cemeteries, the churchyard still continued to attract people such as John Betjeman. The ‘growing interest in folk art and local customs has led to an appreciation of what we still have.’
The chapter on Tomb Variations is full of interesting information on tomb design and style and I learned that a distinctive hump backed 17th memorial is a speciality of Kent – and I have spotted several! As Bowdler says ‘regional distinctiveness…provide much of the joy to be derived from British memorials’ and this is very true as I wander around churchyards.
My own primary focus is on funerary symbols so the chapter on epitaphs and symbols was of particular interest and there were some wonderful examples. However, I hadn’t seen Father Time ‘as frightening as Death sometimes, a spiteful presence eager to bring lives to a close.’
In the final chapter, ‘What next?’ the problems of the environment and how it affects monuments in churchyards are considered and what is being done to address these. Also, the role of genealogy that attracts more people to churchyards and feel connected with their ancestors and I have noticed this myself while volunteering in cemeteries.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the evolution of churchyards and their future.
I currently live in deepest Kent and am lucky enough to be surrounded by ancient churches and their churchyards. The casual passer by may see them as merely picturesque with tall yew trees which may predate the church itself, headstones clustered together for company and now, more frequently, may also have a wild patch to encourage flora and fauna.
However, I see them as the repository of a community’s history in that you can often trace local families through what they have left behind for posterity. These may be in the form of mausolea, large monuments, headstones or perhaps only an entry in the Burial Register as a wooden marker has rotted away. As the blurb on the back says ‘beneath the grass lie untold generations of past parishioners, lying in the shadow of the church until the Day of Judgement.’
In the introduction the author, Roger Bowdler, reminds us that there are 10,000 churchyards in England and defines a churchyard as ‘an enclosed space around a place of worship, devoted to burial and administered by the parish.’ He also discusses the diversity and variety of memorials that may be found in them and also the pleasure in discovering them. He states that his intention is to set out to explain ’why we should cherish our graveyards, and do everything in our power to ward off decay and collapse ‘and he also quotes from Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy on a Country Churchyard’ and ends by saying that ‘churchyards are some of the most life affirming places of all.’ And I would heartily agree.
When I am out church crawling, steeple chasing or symbol searching, I always find it sad to see so many headstones that, due to weathering, erosion or damage are now virtually blank with inscriptions, epitaphs or symbols now lost.
The author gives the history of churchyards from 1700 and then from 1700 onwards. These 2 chapters begin with Roman Britain, then the Anglo Saxons and then onto 1700. There is much fascinating information and Bowdler mentions the surviving remnants of pre Christian memorials and the connection between ancient pagan sites and churchyards. He cites the impressive 25 feet tall standing stone at Rudston in East Yorkshire as evidence. Also, the fragments of Anglo Saxon churchyard monuments at All Saints, Bakewell which I have seen for myself. There is also a photo of what may possibly be the earliest, identified and dated headstone in England which is dated 1518.
According to Bowdler, the average county churchyard will contain ‘thousands of bodies deposited over a millennia or more’ which explains why the ground in some churchyards seems higher than the path although there aren’t that there many memorials in them.
In the second chapter on churchyards after 1700, the urban churchyard and its inability to cope with the increasing urban population became a crisis. And so they were closed after the 1880s and converted into parks with the headstones cowering along its edges. But despite the creation of the great garden cemeteries, the churchyard still continued to attract people such as John Betjeman. The ‘growing interest in folk art and local customs has led to an appreciation of what we still have.’
The chapter on Tomb Variations is full of interesting information on tomb design and style and I learned that a distinctive hump backed 17th memorial is a speciality of Kent – and I have spotted several! As Bowdler says ‘regional distinctiveness…provide much of the joy to be derived from British memorials’ and this is very true as I wander around churchyards.
My own primary focus is on funerary symbols so the chapter on epitaphs and symbols was of particular interest and there were some wonderful examples. However, I hadn’t seen Father Time ‘as frightening as Death sometimes, a spiteful presence eager to bring lives to a close.’
In the final chapter, ‘What next?’ the problems of the environment and how it affects monuments in churchyards are considered and what is being done to address these. Also, the role of genealogy that attracts more people to churchyards and feel connected with their ancestors and I have noticed this myself while volunteering in cemeteries.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the evolution of churchyards and their future.
March 12, 2023
I’ve read this as part of a project my church to do with our churchyard. I think it’s a good introduction, it’s informative without labouring the subject and well illustrated.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews