My tour of churchyards has brought me to small villages, cities and remote ruins in the middle of nowhere.

It occured to me that the trip to get to these churchyards is a pleasure in itself and cannot but add to the visit. Thus, in the future, I will make sure to have some of my walks mapped out for other people to enjoy.

I had planned a new excursion to a nice little village today, but since it’s rainy and gloomy, I have procrastinated the visit and taken the opportunity to do some needed research about the types of stones used in memorial stonemasonry.

Sandstone

sedimentary rock made of sand grains eroded from rocks and cemented together. Grains are quartz, the cement can be iron oxides / calcite / silica.

colour: buff, red, grey

gravestone uses: unpolished, affords deep carving

decay: can be eroded / can be totally covered by lichens

sandstone

Gritstone

sedimentary rock that can be mistaken by sandstone, but it has grains are larger and less rounded than in sandstone.

gritsone

Limestone

It contains marine fossils and is mainly composed of calcite.

colour: commonly white, light grey, buff, pinkish white, but can also be dark grey.

gravestone uses: unpolished.

limestone Seven Sisters cliffs (near Brighton)

i.e. cliffs of Dover, Seven Sisters (South Downs near Brighton) are made of limestone

Slate

methamorphic rock (from mud) with a multi-layered structure, commonly used for roofing.

colour: medium/dark grey, but can also be buff or green. 

gravestone uses: unpolished / shallow carving and crisp lettering

decay: not totally covered, but easily splitted.

headstone made of slate

slate for roof

slate: close-up

Marble 

 white sugary, vaguely luminous methamorphic rock derived from limestone. It is mainly made of calcite (like limestone), sometimes with grey mineral veins.

colour: white, sometimes with grey mineral veins. running through the stone.

gravestone uses: unpolished and polished 

decay: polished marbles are not very resistent. Marble can be easily stained. Look at the joints (i.e. where it attaches to the wall) to determine its original colour.

A common weathering agent of decay is acid rainfall, which roughens the marble’s surface.

marble headstone

marble with grey veins

Granite

ingneous rock, marked with chrystals that look like spots. Main minerals:

feldspar, which gives it its colour

quartz (greyish, glassy chrystals)

mica (grey or brown-black glittery crystals)

crystals are in random arragement.

colour: pink, dark grey

usually polished, but also unpolished

decay: can be obscured, but not totally covered

white and grey granite

buff granite

Dolerite

similar to granite, but it is black (also called “black granite”). 

dolerite headstone

Gneiss

metamorphic rock, similar in appearance to schist, but with distinct alternate bands.

gneiss

Schist

foliated metamorphic rock, with parallel layers similar to slate, but its grains are apparent under lens, whereas in the latter they are too small to be seen.

schist

Gabbro

similar to granite, but with patchy rather than speckled surface and 50:50 of dark and light crystals.

gabbro

Legend

sedimentary rock: rock made up (70%-80%) of sediments (fragments from other rocks) compacted together

igneous rock: rock made of solidification of cooled magma

metamorphic rock: transformation of an exhisting rock under heat and pressure to another

north view of Holy Trinity Church, Cuckfield

Holy Trinity Church’s churchyard in Cuckfield overshadows all the previous ones. Do I always say that? Maybe, but this time I am not just saying it under the influence of the novelty. 

There are two good reasons that make this graveyard particularly beautiful to my eyes: a stunning view over the Dawns and the presence of some graves from the 18c, with the inscriptions that for their content and carving style, resemble  hand-written rhymes carefully composed as if they were the last words whispered by the dead. 

One is about a 19 year old girl who bids adieu to Earth, while Heaven’s doors open in front of her.

” The Angels call they call me from above /

And bid me hasten to the realms of love /

My soul with transport X the happy doom /

I come ye gentle messengers I come /

Earth flies with all the charms it has in store /

Its snares and gay X are no more /

while Heaven appears and the propitious skies /

Unveil their inmost glories to my eyes /

To mortals and their hopes I bid adieu / 

And ask no more X le vieu /

For oh, the light Xwith rays divine /

Breaks in and God’s ethernal day is mine “

Mc George, Mary (1791-1805) [headstone][inscription]

Another could be interpreted as a polite way to say that the man was not as perfect as the dead usually become once they passed away.

“Farewell vain world I know enough of thee /

And now am eardeafs what you say of me /

Thy smiles I court not nor thy frowusl fear /

My days are gone my head lies quiet here /

What fault you find in me take care to shun /

and look at home enough there’s to be done “

Batcheler William (1715-1785)

The oldest one I found however, struck me as it was directly addressed to me, the reader that is. 

” Reader by whatsoever motive led /

To view these gloomy mansions of the dead /

Remember life’s a transient breath /

Therefore prepare gainst sudden death /

Begin therefore prepare today /

Least you like me are snatched away “

Pack John (1736-1787)

In contrast with these big headstones, completely covered in writing, the majority of graves have big headstones often with peculiar decorations (i.e. the Masonic compass (1), the bell (2), the book (3) and the sun wheel) and a few words, which hardly occupy space, or small markers. Although less descriptive, you still find very poignant inscriptions, such as:

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills” (Knight, Sarah Christiana, 1876-1954)

Besides the little chapel, on the eastern side of the main church, I saw a grand gravesite, surrounded by a iron fence. I thought it to be of some famous/ rich person. So I looked it up and I found the owner of the grave, Mr. Ernest Payne (1884-1961), the team pursuit gold medal winner in the 1908 Olympics (more details on Wikipedia). 

A few more landscape pictures and it’s time to head back home.

Notes

When there is an X in the transcription it means that some words in that location are illegible.

(1) the masonic compass: symbol of Freemasons/ uprightnes / judgement. the T-square represents movement toward perfection and a balance between the spiritual and physical which resembles Egyptian and oriental mysticism. The compass (used to form circles) represent spirit. The ruler (part of a square) represent the physical.

(2) the bell:  symbol of mourning / the joyful sending forth of the Good News and the Word.

(3) the book: The Divine word / one’s accomplishments 

References

Christian Symbolism

Tomb With A View’s Guide to Gravestone Symbols: http://members.aol.com/TombView/symbol2.html

Christian Crest Symbols, Origins and Meanings: http://www.goldclipart.com/products/crestsymbols.htm

Symbols and their Meaning: http://www.crossroad.to/Books/symbols1.html

Ernest Payne

Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Payne

3.40 p.m. – Just a brief stop at a local cafe’ before visiting All Saints’ Church, at Patcham. After the long walk that took me here today, a warmed scone with a touch of strawberry jam and a hot, frothy cup of cappuccino are just what I need to get my strength back and gather my thoughts about the churchyard I am about to visit. I have never seen it before, but the bits of information I found in the previous days sounds promising.

For a start, the church is one of the oldest in Brighton area, dating back the twelfth century. Although many parts of the building have been restored, with a disgraceful cement covering most of the exterior walls, the nave is still original. However, the one thing that really fascinated me is that apparently the place is hunted by ” a thin lady dressed in grey, who sits in the pews on frosty nights” (Carder, 2007). I hope to find out more about her story later, I am sure the vicar or the local villagers will know. In the meantime, I guess I’d better this scone before it gets cold!

Tombs near the church

All Saints Church, Patcham

Sadly, I could not get in the church as it is closed on Saturdays. So no ghost stories, yet. However, the churchyard is quite big and varied, so that got me back in my cheerful mood again.

The churchyard can be divided into two parts. The first one includes the church itself and the surrounding tombstones. These are mostly headstones nearer the church and mostly crosses on the further to the left. Some of the stones are broken, a few crosses have fallen off, but overall the tombs are well kept.

Also, even though, the majority of their inscriptions is gone or eroded by lychens, I was impressed by the variety of symbolism and the crafted designs of some markers [photo 1, photo 2, photo 3].

I was able however toread some beautiful inscriptions such as that for William Frederick(1884-1902):

“how sudden was the fall! / no time to say farwell: God’s purposes are wisely hid / he doeth all things well.”

and that for Alfred George Vernall (1878-1963):

“the kiss of the sun for pardon, / the song of the birds for mirth, / one is nearer to God’s heart in a garden, / than anywhere else on earth.”

I also found a tomb which, apart from the unsual way the inscription has been superimposed, struck me because it has been commissioned not by a family member, but by a friend of the dead. Furthermore, the couple who are buried there, May Marion Burford (1880-1964), (May is usually a nickname for Mary), and Isabelle Sarah Luxton (1890-1967) seem to have been lovers. It’s the first time that I find a homosexual relationship spelled out on a headstone. That’s the inscription for M. Burford:

“Sleep on beloved and take your rest for god has called when he thought best: the cross is great that we sustain, in heaven we hope to meet again.”

and below, that for I. Luxton: ” friend and companion of the abouve may burford. reunited.”

Beyond the green fence

The second part of the churchyard, is accessed by crossing an hallway, from an arch entry cut through the grass fence. Apparently this part contains the more recent tombs ( I suspect the churchyard is still open for burials as the last tomb dated back to 2005). One of the inscriptions that I found more poignant is the one for Albert Thornton (1869-1938):

” home at last thy labour done / safe and blest thy victory won; / jordan passed, from paint set free / jesus now has welcomed thee.”

It’s already 5 o’clock, time to make my way home. A few more pictures to the landscape and then, back to the road. [PIC of the church]

References

Carder (2007) My Brighton and Hove. Accessed on 16th Aug 2008:

http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__8434_path__0p115p187p774p.aspx

Resources

All Saints’ Church website

http://www.aspawd.org.uk/aspawdcms/export/index.html

Headstone symbolism

http://www.prestigememorials.com/Headstones-Symbolism-information.php

http://www.everlifememorials.com/v/headstones/cemetery-symbolism.htm

http://www.vintageviews.org/vv-tl/pages/Cem_Symbolism.htm

Surfing the “A Church Near You” website this week, I found that Ovingdean, a small village near Brighton, hosts a lovely church with a graveyard dating back the 11th century.

St Wulfran's Church, Ovingdean

St.Wulfran, that’s the name of the church (there are only other two churches in Britain named after such a saint) is the oldest building in the area of Brighton and Hove, and appears in the Doomsday Book. Most of the original church was destroyed during the centuries and rebuilt in the late 1870s, but the tower is believed to date back the 13th.
The wooden barrel-vaulted ceiling of the chancel on the interior of the Church, was painted by Eamer Kempe, with designs of leaves, flowers and doves, as part of the restoration works in the 19th.
Armed with all my equipment, on Saturday morning I set off to pay a visit, but I discovered at my expenses that church on Saturdays is closed (lesson learnt, always check the timetable for the services).
Nevertheless I enjoyed the walk and found the place where the church is, a little hill, half hidden by trees, with a great view of the dawns from its eastern side, simply charming.

Thus I persevered and I went back on Sunday. While the service was on, I could wander around understurbed among the graves. The ones immediatly surrounding the church date from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th, while much more recent tombs (the churchyard is still open for burials) can be found on the back, beside a small stone wall, presumably the extension of the churchyard. Beside the traditional headstones, crosses and celtic crosses seem to prevail for the graves prior the mid 60s.
I also found a few somewhat personal inscriptions, largely from the beginning of the 20th century, a fact which struck me as quite unusual since, in the churchyards I visited before inscriptions were largely quotes taken from the Bible up until at least the 1950s.

Another peculiarity, is the presence of a meridian (overview, close-up), next to the church’s front door, on the left.

Preliminary work

The first step was to search for similar conservation projects on graveyards and their system of cataloging.

Here are some of the resources used:

http://www.gravestonephotos.com/ – from this site I got the table with the codes to specify the relation among those buried in the same gravesite , and other label names to describe a person’s details.

http://www.oldcem.bc.ca/ - this site offers a template for those who wish to record graves. The main information I got from it regards the grave itself, such as the material with which was made, its shape, its direction in relation to the church, etc. You can download the recordsheet (pdf file) from the site.

http://connections.smsd.org/csi/Tombs.htm - tomb types

http://www.tngenweb.org/darkside/typology.html - markers

http://www.heritagememorials.com.au/pg_letstyle.php – lettering styles

http://cjstones.com/inscriptions.htm - font types

While building the coding standards I also had to get to know Flickr a bit better, particularly in regards on how it stores additiona information, such as photo’s s description and tags.

Useful things to know about Flickr

Flickr offers three main ways to insert content in regards to a photo, its title, its description and its tags.

title – capture the essential information.

description – as detailed as possible.

tags – connect to other objects which are similar to the current one by some particular feature, both within the collection and between the Flickr’s community. The tags cannot be more than 75, so which tags to put need to carfully considered.

Flickr also allows to assign the photo to a geographical position.

Flickr allows to create sets. Unfortunately, only the pro account (which has an annual fee) allows for unlimited set, otherwise the user can create a miximum of 3 sets.

Since we want to keep the project at zero cost, we will not make use of this functionality, but decide on an alternative way to organise the photos.

Tags format

label: value

this gets displayed as two separate consecutive tags

i.e.

material:

sandstone

Thus allowing both values to be searchable (Flickr displays the : but discards it when it looks for photos with the same tag), human readable (as by reading the list of tags top-down you get the label followed by its value) and machine readable (it is easy to write code that separates the list into couples according to the : and thus retrieve the different attributes).

However, a discussion of this approach with a friend, highlighted that this way of tagging was still difficult to grasp for those who were not already familiar with the objects described as it is not clear that the label is related to the following value. Plus, sometimes Flickr messes up the order and so you can find a label followed by a different value etc.

Thus, because of the need to keep the label and value together, while at the same time have the possibility to search for photos from other users related to mine, I adopted machine tags (namespace:label=value) for my own descriptions, leaving other users the possibility to Add tags to my photos.

The adopted system

Deciding on content was particularly complex, since it appears to be no standard for the cataloging of gravesites.

There are however guidelines and tips used by different groups, mostly charities, working in the preservation of cemeteries. Thus we thought of integrating them together in one consistent system.
TAGS

To add a machine tag on Flickr, click (as for the other tags) on the Add a tag link, then follow this format:

namespace:label=value

The namespace is churchyardtraveller. If the value is more than one word, you need to put it in “”. Flickr will recognize automatically that the new tag is a machine tag and add to your tags a link to show the list of machine tags.

Here are some examples to show correct syntax:

churchyardtraveller:tomb=family(2)

churchyardtraveller:tomb=table

churchyardtraveller:materials=wood

churchyardtraveller:inscription-font=”Classic Roman italic”

churchyardtraveller:inscription-style=”cut and black painted”

churchyardtraveller:inscription-case=”lower case”

churchyardtraveller:mason=”Busby&Co., Cumbria”

churchyardtraveller:person(a)=”chuYoung George (1822 – 1878)”

TITLE

for a single person:

Surname Initial. (year birth – year death), Church, Place, REGION CODE, COUNTRY CODE “initial inscription…”

i.e. Young G. (1822 – 1878 ), St Margaret, Rottingdean, SXE, ENG “Since thou couldst…”

for 2 people:

Surname Initial. (year birth – year death)/ Surname Initial. (year birth – year death) [relation] , Church, Place, REGION CODE, COUNTRY CODE “initial inscription…”

i.e. Young G. (1822 – 1878 ) / Young M. (1822 – 1873) [wife], St Margaret, Rottingdean, SXE, ENG “Since thou couldst…”

for more than 2 people:

Surname Initial. (year birth – year death) et. al. , Church, Place, REGION CODE, COUNTRY CODE “initial inscription…”

Young G. (1822 – 1878 ) et. al., St Margaret, Rottingdean, SXE, ENG “Since thou couldst…”

DESCRIPTION

“the inscription or part of it, each line separated by / “

It refers to:
in case there are more people buried, but the inscription does not refer to them all

Other information:

…here you copy and paste the info from the tags and add any additional notes…

I found this churchyard by wandering around Rottingdean, in search of a cream tea in the sunshine.

St Margaret’s Church is just a few metres from the centre of town. From the distance it appears to be a small church on a little hill, but once I entered the churchyard, it was surprising to see how vaste this is. It was in fact extended in three occasions, in 1883, 1905 and 1920.

While the graves from the 19th century are traditionally crafted, usually headstones or crosses with biblical quotations for inscriptions, there are definetily some very interesting markers from the 1960s, which display an originality both in style and content of the inscriptions.

An example of such originality is the grave of the music hall entertainer Ellott, G. H. .

There are many other beautiful inscriptions, mostly from recent burials, such as the following by John Brookes (1987):

” I’ll not be back today…..friend!

For the winds call on the hill.

Keep my place, by the fire….friend.

Till the mists have had their fill.”

The graveyard is still open for burials.

Links

St Margaret’s Church online – the official website

As everyone who starts off for a journey, I am preparing my list of things I would need in my churchyard tour day.
However, as almost everyone I guess, my mind goes blank as soon as I put in front of me a bit of paper and a pen. And of course the feeling that I forgot something extremely important as soon as I leave the house.

Instead of writing everything in a piece of paper which inexorably goes in the bin or lost somewhere, I think it is really time for me to write down a plan and save it…that’s what this post is about, providing for my lack of memory and organisation.

The essentials

So here we go:

1. directions of the church/es I want to visit (at least two options, so that I can choose the church which most suits my mood for the day)
2. a note-book (to write down the inscriptions, in case the photos are poor quality, and note down any other thing that passes through my mind at the moment)
3. a pen (pretty obvious but better write it down, you won’t believe the time I forgot it!)
4. a camera (I can’t use the camera phone again, it is not really worth it)
5. 2 sets of batteries for the camera (the amount of energy this devil device sucks is unbelievable, sometimes I wonder if I am bringing along a microwave instead)
6. food and drinks (cannot feel without energy, can I?)
7. ipod (personal obsession)

That’s it, now all I need is remembering to actually read this…

Stanmer park has been the last Sunday discovery and a very pleasant too, with its hilly, green fields, its village and its lovely parish churchyard.

The churchy itself is quite small. It was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt in 1838. The churchyard, although still open for burials, has mostly graves dating from the 18th to the 20th and among them many ones belong to the Pelham family, which acquired Stanmer estate in 1713.

The grave markers are mostly headstones, but there are a few celtic crosses too, some ledger stones and very few box tombs, all scattered around the green surroundings of the church, which also include some beautiful old trees and a pond water dressed in brown, circumscribed by a small stone fence.

Unfortunately, most of the markers are covered in lichens and the inscriptions are gone. Nevertheless, two graves attracted my attention for their inscriptions, those of Woolington, H. and his wife and that of the young Holman, E.

More info

A brief history of Stanmer Park

Flickering through the Brighton Fringe Festival booklet, I found a talk which seemed to the relate graveyards’ project I am working on.

Victorian Ways of Death and Mourning
Sarah Tobias
St John’s Chapel, Woodvale Extra-Mural Cemetery

At first I was in two minds about going, since the talk was about the period right after the years I would like to focus my research on. Also, as much as I like old country churchyards, I always get a sense of spookiness from cemeteries and I tend to avoid them.

However, thinking that I might get some information which could be useful to my research and considering that the alternative of lazing around was not very appealing, I decided to go and I am glad I did.

Mixing poetry reading, with more didactic descriptions and slides, the talk was both entertaining and informative.

I soon discovered that mourning in Victorian times was business out in the open and even involved fashion. For example, the adverts for the mourning dresses of the two main London warehouses, one of which advertised that “grey is the in colour for the season” and went on offering all shades of grey dresses, to be fashionable in your mourning.

Some other interesting facts:

• Queen Victoria’s mourning for Albert was far more than that normally expected for a widow. In fact, it lasted for 40 years, basically since his death
• Funerals were men-only
• After the death of her husband, the woman was to wear black for 2.5 years during which she could not remarry. The man could remarry after two weeks, but their new wife would have to dress black in respect to the previous one
• Locks of hair were sometimes cut from the dead to create bracelets and other jewellery with the purpose of remembering them. Sometimes, especially for dead children, hand moulds were taken to serve the same function
• There were men who were paid specifically to look grim as the funeral was celebrated
• A funeral was such a big event for all classes, so much poor people would live at straits in order to pay for it

I was also glad to meet people which share my same curiosity for the topic, such as a lady who came dressed with a home-made Victorian mourning dress which looked fabulous (if I may say so). Through her, I came to know of a new exciting tour of English graveyards to be held in the summer.

I gathered information for my project as well. I discovered for example that Sussex University has recently done a research on Parish churches ( I must dig into it) and that some conservation work for tombstones is currently being done (on a voluntary basis) at St. Nicholas.

the Fringe website