Yes, it is shadowsflyaway’s 8th birthday so there will be no Symbol of the Month this month. Instead I hope to post some of my churchyard visits and what I found in them including this one which forms the background to this year’s birthday card from St John the Evangelist in Margate. This was a particularly fruitful churchyard in terms of symbols and, although it wasn’t open when I visited, I could see that there might be more interesting funerary memorials inside.
So thanks to all my readers for your comments and likes – they are very much appreciated.
One of the snakes on the catacomb doors in Brompton Cemetery. copyright Carole Tyrrell
To any of you that live in London, I am leading an Introduction to Cemetery Symbols tour in Brompton Cemetery!
It will focus on the symbols within Brompton Cemetery of which there is a varied and fascinating collection amongst its 35,000 monuments from Celtic crosses to Egyptian gods and many others. Come and explore the lost language of Death with me!
Date and time: Sat, 8 July 2023, 14:00
Leaving from: Information Centre (Old Brompton Road entrance) Duration: approx. 1 hour 30 minutes Tickets are £10 per person (plus £1.50 booking fee if booked on Eventbrite)
Book at Eventbrite (refundable up to 1 day before event; Eventbrite’s fee is nonrefundable)
I was originally going to entitle this post ‘ the oldest headstone that I have seen – so far’. As I explore churchyards and cemeteries I sometimes find ancient tombstones and memorials dating back to the 17th century. But, more recently, I have found ones that are dated even earlier.
This one was in the porch of St Nicholas in Sturry which is a village in Kent and is a good example of early 17th century calligraphy. Sadly, because it is in the porch, there is no way of knowing where Robert Dadd is buried within the large churchyard that surrounds the church. But it is incredible to think that this headstone has survived for over 400 years although obviously we don’t know when it was put in the porch. I couldn’t find the headstone on Kent Archaeological Society’s monumental inscriptions page but Dadd seems to be a fairly common name. They have been recorded as living in Sturry during the 18th century.
I was admiring the drifts of ox eye daisies, or moon daisies as they are also known, in the substantial churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Selling in Kent. This was a fascinating church with wall paintings of saints and other painted decoration. Sometimes I do have a real sense of what a medieval church must have looked like, pre-Reformation, with murals, wall paintings and other decoration. It would have been alive with colour in contrast to the plain interiors of churches that can be seen today. The beautiful painted medieval column at St Mary’s of Charity in Faversham is another indication with its still rich colours. The priest would have used the wall paintings as teaching aids to an illiterate congregation.
Under a spreading yew tree is the headstone dedicated to Catherine Lees who died in 1681. According to the guidebook, it is the oldest legible tombstone in the churchyard, so there may be others even earlier that are not so readable now. Catherine was a member of an old Kent family, the Lees, and the guidebook says that there is ‘a house in the next parish of Shieldwich (which) is still called Lees Court after them.’ The inscriptions and symbols are very crudely cut into the stone which is part of its charm for me. However, I was a little surprised that such an old and venerable family could not afford a professional stonemason. There is an hourglass, skull and longbones and the epitaph reads:
Also, in St Mary’s churchyard are its only surviving medieval tombstones according to the guidebook. Apparently, there were ‘many of them in a particular part of the churchyard’. These were ‘stone discs with a quatrefoil ornamentation on a short stone shank.’ But no names apparently. St Mary’s burial registers only began in 1558 so there may be no records of their medieval burials. St Mary’s is an interesting church as the very first church was built on a Jutish holy place and their ‘savage dancing ground of beaten earth lies somewhere beneath the chancel floor of the tranquil and dignified building that is seen today.’ The Jutes were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Britain after the Romans left. They were very powerful and a local pond, Ghost Hole Pond, has a sinister reputation. There were several recorded cases of violent deaths associated with it and the Jutes were known for their human sacrifices. These included the ‘ritual drowning of ….in ponds and meres.’ This seemingly quiet and peaceful part of Kent obviously hides a much more savage and brutal past. St Mary’s is another example of the Christianisation of pagan sites by building a church on top of one. An interesting brush with ancient history.
So now I have seen medieval examples of burial markers – can I find one that is even earlier? There are reputed to be some in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul in Tonbridge, Kent but they were unsure of where they were. But I’m keeping a look out!
shadows fly away 