They are the sentinels of the silent cities, standing tall and spreading out their branches to shade the last resting places of the permanent residents. Yew trees can often be older than the churches which they nestle beside in the churchyard and may predate Christianity as many churches were built on pagan sites of worship. In fact there are reputed to be at least 500 yew trees of this vintage! And incredibly, there are 10 yew trees in Britain that are believed to predate the 10th century.
These venerable trees have many associations and traditions. I will try and concentrate on a few but they are usually associated with churchyards and burial grounds. The most common one is that they are nourished by the decaying bodies beneath them and, as they can grow up to 20 metres high, this could seem plausible. Another tradition states that yews were planted on plague victims graves to protect and purify them – if this were true than some churchyards would resemble a forest!
Another common tradition is that they were planted to prevent ‘commoners’ from grazing their cattle on church ground. This was because yews are very poisonous to livestock. The needles are deadly, and Shakespeare used this in Macbeth when the three witches conjure up a deadly brew that contains, amongst other unpleasant ingredients:
‘Gall of goat, and slips of yew Silver’d in the moon’s eclipse,’
However, the Celts saw the yew as a symbol of immortality, death and resurrection. The yew’s drooping branches are able to root and form new trunks where they touch the ground. The one at St James in Cooling was living inside its dead ancestor which demonstrates its ability to renew itself.
In fact, they are one of the most long lived trees in Western Europe but are not considered ancient until at least 900 years old. The oldest tree in Scotland, and possibly Europe, is the magnificent Fortingall yew in Glen Lyon. It has been suggested that it is over 2000 years old and maybe even 9000 years old. It has numerous legends attached to it and in 1769 was reputed to have a girth of over 56ft. In 1854, funeral processions were reputed to be able to pass through the arch formed by its split trunk. The yew in St Cynog’s churchyard in Wales is a mere stripling at a reputed 5000 years old. One of the world’s oldest surviving wooden artifacts is a yew spear head which is estimated to be around 450,000 years old. They are evergreens with red berries which although are edible, the seed in the berry is extremely dangerous.
One of my favourite churchyards is that of St Marys in Painswick, Gloucestershire. It has 99 clipped yew trees but according to Roy’s blog post, attempts to grow a 100th tree have always failed. They are a dramatic sight to see!
I must admit that I would feel disappointed if I visited a churchyard and didn’t see a tall, majestic yew or two keeping watch over the dead as potent symbols of resurrection and immortality.
Firstly, Happy New Year to you all! Winter is always a good time to explore cemeteries and churchyards due to the winter die back of vegetation and last November was no exception.
Now, a word of warning, never assume when you’re out exploring churchyards that all headstones are facing in a certain way. I have visited this churchyard several times, saw this headstone and had dismissed it as being weathered and unreadable. How wrong I was! I had thought that it was facing me when in fact the opposite was true.
On this visit, it was a terrible November day, cold and wet, and the evening chill was beginning to close in as the evening began to draw on. The winter die back had revealed headstones along the churchyard’s front wall and boundary wall that I hadn’t previously able to previously see displaying a multitude of ‘winged souls’.
These have featured in a previous Symbol of the Month dated 29 April 2025. But as I was gingerly stepping over wet leaves to look at them more closely by the front entrance, I looked down and saw this one!
It is actually facing the churchyard wall and I had been looking at its back on my other visits. It still looks as crisp and clear as when it was carved with two stylised skulls and bones facing each other displaying teeth.
On the right hand side there is a dedication to:
‘Here lyeth
Martha, wife of Wm Pepper
Aged 24 Was Buryed on
11th day of November 1705’
On the left hand side there is another dedication is to their two daughters:
‘ Here lyeth Eliz {abeth}
and Sarah
daughters of
Wm and Martha Pepp’
I couldn’t see any dates but they may be obscured by damp vegetation.
What’s interesting about this headstone is, that if you look closely, you can see that the stonemason has run out of space with some of the letters and had to put the rest of them on the next line. This happens with ‘Martha’ and also ‘Pepper’ on the left hand side near the bottom when both words become split. I haven’t seen this before on a headstone although I knew that it did happen.
William Pepper is also buried in the churchyard but I couldn’t find his tombstone on this visit. Instead, I had to consult Charles Cotton’s 1895 book, ‘History and Antiquities of the Church and Parish of St Laurence (Lawrence) Thanet (Ramsgate) which I found on the Kent Archaeological Society website under their Monumental Inscriptions page.
As a result, I did make a return visit to the churchyard and located William’s tombstone which is beside Martha’s. As you can see it is much larger with a winged soul at the top and what I assume to be clouds above that.
There is also a more fulsome epitaph although much of it wasn’t readable. What I could read said:
‘Here lyeth with his wife
and two Children
Wm Pepper…..the rest is illegible
who died on the 15th April 1746 aged 73 years….the rest is illegible.’
It may be easier to read on a better day. The headstone seems to have been more professionally carved but of the two I do prefer his wife’s.
But Martha’s tombstone had been such a wonderful find on such a terrible day weatherwise and it was good to be able to find her husband’s headstone as well to complete the family group.
The two tombstones encapsulate the change that took place in churchyard symbols during the 18th century. It began with the very stark reminder of death with the skull and crossbones to a more comforting message for those left behind towards the end of the century. This emphasised that there might be eternal life on ‘the other side’ as the soul flies heavenward.
History and Antiquities of the Church and Parish of St Laurence (Lawrence)Thanet (Ramsgate) – reference taken from the Kent Archaeological Society website under Monumental Records, Charles Cotton 1895.
It was in the churchyard of St Laurence in Thanet, Ramsgate that I found this gleeful skull wearing a crown. The churchyard has a plethora of winged souls or children’s heads with wings but there is also a scattering of fine skulls as well. This particular skull has bat wings on either side of its head but more on these later. I consider it to be a personification of The King of Terrors which is another name for Death.
The headstone is very weathered and most of the epitaph has now gone. According to the 1895 book published by Charles Cotton on ‘St Lawrence (Laurence), Thanet (Ramsgate)’, it could be either the last resting place of:
‘Mary, wife of Cornelius Martin, died 15th December 1728 aged 57 years’
Or
‘Mary, wife of George Martin, died 10th January 1727 aged 38 years.’
On closer inspection, the name Mary can still be seen but what remains on the right-hand side of the headstone is illegible although I did spot an ‘i’. This is what led to my supposition that it might be one of these ladies who is buried there.
On first glance it doesn’t look like a very comforting symbol with its stark representation of death. There is a very sobering verse written by the Rev. George Crabb (1754-1832) in which he mentions the King of Terrors:
‘Death levels man – the wicked and the just,
The wise, the weak, the blended in the dust,
And by the honours dealt to every name,
The King of Terrors seems to level fame.’
This reminds the reader that Death makes all men and women equal despite their rank when alive.
The King of Terrors is usually depicted as a skeleton brandishing a scythe, an arrow, a spear or a dart. This magnificent example comes from Cralling Old Parish churchyard in the Scottish Borders. It’s a gleeful skeleton holding a scythe which is the symbol most associated with death.
Also in Scotland, Greyfriars Cemetery in Edinburgh abounds with macabre symbolism on its monuments and is well worth a visit if you’re ever visiting the city. I have seen it for myself and it is an amazing place. The lively skeleton depicted on the headstone of Surgeon James Borthwick is known as ‘the dancing skeleton’ and is very impressive. Please follow the link below and scroll down to see it.
The monument is large and measures 4m x 2m so you won’t miss it and is the largest one in Greyfriars. The skeleton is not only holding the Book of Destiny but also a large scythe. It is ultimately a ‘memento mori’ which is Latin for ‘Remember you must die.’
There is also one in the celebrated Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh (don’t be put off by the Dan Brown associations) as it is such a fascinating place to visit.’
All of these images emphasis the role of The King of Terrors as the King of Death or the Grim Reaper. For what else could Death be but a terror as it’s the unknown.
However, in this detail from Alice Stone’s headstone in the churchyard of All Saints, Staplehurst, Kent, a winged figure, presumably the Devil, is triumphantly holding a dart, is standing over a fallen skeleton whose crown has fallen from his head. Has the Devil beaten Death? Is the incumbent doomed to a life in hell?
The King of Terrors is also a psychopomp. This comes from the Greek word, ‘psychopompos’ which means ‘the guide of souls.’ They appear in many religions and forms such as spirits, angels, demons and gods to guide the deceased to the afterlife.
Anubis and the King – tomb of Horemheb 1323-1295 BC Metropolitian Museum of Art. Shared under Wiki Creative Commons
Charon and his boat on a funerary relief ca 320s BC shared under Wiki Creative Commons.
The most obvious examples are Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, Charon the Greek ferryman, the Goddess Hecate and the Norse Valkyries amongst a host of others. The psychopomp is also a personification of death and often represented with a scythe and given the title of ‘The Grim Reaper’ – the reaper of souls. This is one of the earliest images of him and dates from 1460.
One of the oldest paintings with conventional ‘Grim Reaper’ elements, a skeletal character with a scythe (circa 1460 by Jean Fouquet) shared under Wiki Creative Commons.
The King of Terrors first appears in the Bible in the Book of Job 18:14:
‘His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.’
This is part of a chapter emphasising destruction and death for those who do not keep to the righteous path. However, I am indebted to the vastpublicindifference blog for the next earliest use of the name in a printed pamphlet. He is mentioned in William Prynne’s ‘Perpetuite of a Regenerate Man’s Estate’ in 1626:
‘If once you have the smallest dram of time and saving grace, you need not feare the very King of Terrors, hell and death, you need feare the most that men or divells (devils) can do to you. They cannot seuer (sever) you from the love of God, which is Christ Iesus (Jesus) your lord, not yet disturbe you from the state of Grace.’
He also appears in nearly 200 books in English pre-1700.
However, the King of Terrors, the Grim Reaper or whatever you choose to call him is not a very comforting image for those left behind. So, it’s no wonder that, as the years went on, these very stark symbols began to be replaced by the ‘winged souls’. They gave a more hopeful image of another life after death. There’s also the batwings on either side of the skull to consider.
Bats were considered to be the spirits of the dead and associated with evil as the Devil traditionally had the same type of wings. Sometimes the skulls are given two different types of wings; on one side they are feathered and on the other is the batwings.
Bats can also be seen as guardians between physical and spiritual worlds. They were supposed to guide souls through transformation or metamorphosis: renewal, death and rebirth. So, the use of them is very appropriate on a funerary monument. In China, for example, they are seen as symbols of good luck, longevity and rebirth.
So, within this one symbol there are two meanings. One is that the person has encountered the Grim Reaper and has died whereas the other suggests that they are going to be reborn to everlasting life. It was an interesting symbol to see on my churchyard visit although the skull does look a little too enthusiastic!
Imagine if you will a medieval church. Inside it would be brightly painted and very colourful in contrast to the whitewashed interiors that we are familiar with today. Faded vestiges of these colours can sometimes be seen on monuments or pillars. The church porch might be used for other activities besides keeping out of inclement weather. They were used for ceremonies such as marriages or the ‘churching’ of women and churches were often the hub of community life. But they also had a dark side as they were seen, surprisingly, as places where evil lurked. In fact, it was believed that the Devil and his horde lived within the church on the ‘north’ or sinister side.
The medieval world was often harsh and the forces of evil were supposedly everywhere. A bad harvest, plague or fires were all attributed to them. Witches were also believed to be real. Meanwhile the Church taught that the world was full of evil spirits who were always looking for unwary souls to tempt or possess.
Even churches needed protection despite priests performing blessings and masses and so the local parishioners took action into their own hands and relied on the use of apotropaic symbols. This is a Greek word that comes from ‘apotrepein’ which means ‘to ward off’ i.e. ‘apo’ = away and ‘trepein’ = ‘to turn.’ It was a secret language which its medieval creators firmly believed could protect them from evil. They were a way of their creators taking back control over their world. The marks were often inscribed near vulnerable places such as doorways, windows, fireplaces and even fonts. In other words, wherever an evil presence might try to enter. But they were not confined to churches as they also appeared in other historic and ancient buildings.
But by the 18th century, belief in protective marks had declined. However, they were inscribed into buildings and churches up until the 19th century and have been described as ‘folk magic’ or superstition. But in rural areas the tradition continued and was handed down through generations.
I have seen many medieval survivors of the 17th century iconoclasts in Kent churches such as wall paintings at Selling and a Doom painting at Newington but more recently I have been finding the most enigmatic survivors of all, ritual protection marks. You have to know where to look as they are often well hidden. I did wonder if the priest knew what was going on and turned a blind eye. But we will never know. However, this is a huge subject and I can only scratch the surface. I’m just intrigued by them and their variety. In this post I am giving you a selection of what I’ve found so far and possible meanings. I have visited 3 churches so far: St Nicholas, Sturry, St Nicholas at Wade and Hoo St Werberga who all have these marks. As you might imagine crosses feature heavily.
I first found marks in St Nicholas church, Sturry, near Canterbury in 2023. The churchwarden pointed them out as they’d just had someone in to do a survey of them. There were crosses on pillars near the entrance and on the other side of the church. So, I made a return visit this year and this time found a figure which may be the Virgin Mary as it seems to be wearing a skirt and has a halo.
However, there was a Facebook post dated 27 December 2025 on the Ritual Protection Marks and Ritual Practices page in which they say that this particular mark may be a Golgotha mark which represents the site just outside Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. I can’t put a link to it but if you visits the page it’s easy to find. This is an interesting page and they know what they’re talking about.
There was a little note on a pillar indicating a M or Marian mark but I couldn’t find it and then I was distracted by a cream tea. I also saw circles which appear to have been appear to have been drawn with a compass as well as dots. The small circles are also referred to as hexafoils and are the most common.
According to their information leaflet on the marks;
‘They can range from simple circles, to six petalled flower designs and highly complex geometric designs which are known as daisywheels.’
They are usually small as at St Nicholas, but they can be up to a metre across. It was originally believed that they were created by the masons who built the churches but there are too many for them to be attributed to one trade. It has been suggested that:
‘they may have been created in order to trap the demons that roamed the world within their complex structure by quite literally pinning them to the walls.’ Information leaflet, St Nicholas, Sturry.
Also at Sturry , there are five ‘dots’ on a pillar which could easily be missed but they have significance:
‘the dots appear to follow numerical values, being found in generally uneven numbers, and commonly in groups of three, five, seven and nine. Certain uneven numbers had considerable significance in the medieval church, such as the Trinity and the seven sacraments, and numbers were also regarded as powerful within aspects of medieval magic’. Information leaflet, St Nicholas, Sturry
But this is only one interpretation and, as with most ritual protection marks, there can be several and it’s not possible to say definitively which is the correct one.
I visited St Nicholas at Wade at Easter 2025 and the church was bustling as it was being decked with flowers for the celebrations. They very proudly showed me their ‘daisy wheel’ on a pillar.
A daisy wheel is a stylised flower pattern and according to English Heritage ‘
‘they are the most easily recognisable. They have been found in early medieval English buildings from the early medieval period right up to the 19th century. Followers of Wicca see them as sun symbols’
Histories and Castles describe them as:
‘geometric rosettes, often with 6 petals that symbolised eternity and divine protection. The medieval mind believed that evil travelled in straight lines and so could be trapped by circular forms, the looping unbroken line of a hexafoil was thought to confuse evil spirits or trap them in an endless journey.’
I previously visited Hoo St Werberga in September 2024. But this time I was looking specifically for ritual protection marks and found them despite being led astray by another excellent cream tea. This time I found a large ship on a pillar which is possibly a reference to St Werberga’s position on the River Dee and the lantern in its tower to guide shipping. My photo did not come out too well although the body of the ship can be seen. So, I attach a copy of a far better photograph that was displayed on the local history desk with their kind permission.
In fact it was one of the local history people who proudly indicated one of the most enigmatic and mysterious marks I’ve seen so far. It was a bullseye on a pillar. It was partly obscured by the organ and other pieces of church furniture and so I might have missed it. He told me that they know nothing about it and it’s certainly an unusual item to find in a church. . However, the circles inside each other may have been another method of trapping demons.
I will undoubtedly find more as I explore other churches in Kent especially as I now know where to look for them. They are the traces of a medieval belief system of protection from the threat of unknown demonic forces from which no one was safe not even the rich and powerful. They were seen as holding protective powers and were a way of empowering their creators.
They are a fascinating glimpse into the world and beliefs of our ancestors.
It was dark in the chancel as I explored St John’s and then five small figures set into stones in the floor glinted at me. Four of them were dressed in the clothes or armour of their time and one depicted a former priest, Sir Thomas Cardiff who was in post from 1460-1415. In fact Kent has the largest number of remaining monumental brasses depicting the human form than any other county. These total 400. But one in particular caught my eye. How could I resist its smiling, gleeful face?
It was a skeleton, standing upright and tall with its arms at its sides facing the viewer, and a label underneath in Latin. This was the language of the church pre-Reformation.
The inscription reads:
‘Orate pro anima Ricardi Notfelde qui obiit penultimo die mensis marcii anno domini millesimo ccccxlvi.’
which translates as:
‘Pray for the soul of Richard Notfelde, who died on the last day of March 1446 AD‘
The skeleton’s creator has some knowledge of anatomy as the ribs have been sketched in and there are also leg and arm bones. There is a rubbing of the brass in the Wellcome Collection that dates from 1880 and depicts the bones much more clearly.
Wellcome Collection rubbing of the skeleton. Shared under Wiki Commons Brass rubbing by F.Q. Hawkes Mason, 1880.
But it was its face that caught my attention. That grin! The little eyes and nose! It’s obviously not intended to resemble a proper skull but the effect was impressive. As the brasses are in such a dark place within the church, when I stood over the skeleton to take my photos, my shadow fell on it and the grin would disappear. So it was quite difficult to take a decent picture of any of the brasses.
The skeleton is a memento mori which derives from the Latin, ‘remember you must die.’ It is intended to remind the viewer that the skeleton is all that will remain of them after death. Rich or poor, high or low, all will be the same.
According to the guide on duty, the brasses and their labels have been moved and it’s not known where they originally were within the church. But they also have a secret. They’re not actually made of brass. Instead, they were made from a cheap alloy called ‘Latten’. The guide helpfully reminded me of Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale in which he sold fake relics to simple, innocent people to extort money from them. These included a cross made of ‘Latoum’ a cheap alloy that he pretends is made of gold.
Latten was an alloy that
‘contained varying amounts of copper, tin, zinc and lead which gave the characteristics of both brass and bronze.’ Wikipedia.
These alloys were used for monumental brasses in churches, decorative effects on borders, rivets or other metalwork details as on armour for example. They were also used for livery and pilgrim badges. Canterbury Museums have the largest collection of pilgrims badges in the UK so please follow the link to see a selection.
The skeleton was an unexpected find on a Heritage Open Day and I enjoyed making its acquaintance. A rare survivor in any church although I have seen other brasses made from Latten when visiting other Kent churches.
I tried to find this grave last year in the churchyard of Hoo St Werbergh but ran out of time. However, on a return visit this year I finally found it.
It’s dedicated to a man called ‘Time Of Day’ ( I kid you not). (1833-1890) with ‘Day’ being his surname. I did wonder if his siblings were called after days of the week with their surname providing the end as in ‘Sun – Day, Mon-Day etc.
He was a licenced victualler or publican who owned a pub in a nearby hamlet, Fenn Street, Hoo, called The Bell Inn from 1881. He died on 11 December 1890 and the headstone was erected by his wife, Martha, who was the executrix of his will. The value of his estate was £962.10s.3d which was a substantial sum at that time. There was no mention of any children.
The Fenn Bell Inn may have been named after one of several bells erected on nearby marshes. In poor weather they would ring to enable travellers to find a safe way to cross but The ‘Bell’ is a common name for pubs throughout Britain. The Fen Bell Inn has been in existence since the 17th century although it has been remodelled and restored since then. However, some of the original fabric still exists. Since 2014, it has housed the Fenn Bell Conservation project for rescued animals and a miniature railway. Recently, there has been controversy over the pub landlord’s plan to sell off land for housing but he has defended it saying that he needed to do it to keep his business going.
‘Time of Day’ is a very unusual name as you might agree but he was a man of some substance and is likely to remembered for many years to come.
This summer I was out walking with a friend along the sea wall to Minnis Bay when we saw this little roadside shrine. It was on a popular route which is used by walkers and cyclists alike. On one side is the pebbly beach and on the other are marshes that stretch down to the railway line. It was touching to see that people, friends or perhaps fellow passers-by, had left little tributes of a bunch of flowers and stones.
The placing of stones on graves is something that I’ve always associated with the Jewish faith (see blog post ‘Silently slumbering for remembrance Part 1 dated 14 April 2016). If you have ever visited a Jewish cemetery then you will have noticed stones placed on top of graves and headstones and there may be a basket of stones available for this purpose. But over the last few years I have noticed them being placed on the graves of people who aren’t Jewish and I was intrigued by their possible meaning.
In the Jewish faith, it is believed that the placing of stones ‘keeps the soul down.’ This comes from the Talmud
‘which is the central text of rabbinical Judaism and is the primary source of Jewish religious law and theology’ Wikipedia
In the Talmud, it is stated that:
‘souls continue to dwell for a while in the graves in which they are placed. The grave was called a beit olam or a permanent home and was thought to retain some aspects of the departed soul. By placing stones, it becomes a way of the living helping the dead to ‘stay put’.
This may have brought comfort to those visiting the grave in that they may feel that their loved ones are still near.The Hebrew word for pebble is ‘tz’ror’ which can also mean ‘bond’. The placing of stones was also a mark of respect and a way of showing that someone had visited.
Stones were used because of their durability. The Ancient Greeks believed that using stones to mark graves would ward off evil spirits and they also symbolised the soul’s eternal nature as they didn’t change over time. They associated them with the god, Hermes. However, stones and their associations with burials have been known to many ancient cultures especially Ireland, Scandinavia North Africa, the Middle East and Asia amongst others where they used them to mark sacred territories where communities would gather to honour their dead. Also the Neolithic and Bronze periods in Europe in particular. Stones were used to create cairns. These are usually placed on top of graves as markers and to protect the dead from predators. In the Bronze Age they may have believed that the stones would stop the dead from rising as in the Jewish faith. Some of these still stand. The word ‘cairn’ comes from the Irish ‘carn’ with the plural being ‘cairn’ . In Scottish Gaelic ‘càrn’ translates to ‘heap of stones.’
They were also seen as a method of defence in that it would ward off predators from the burial site.
However, more recently, there has been controversy regarding the building of cairns on certain sites. This is due to the environmental damage that they can cause. Both the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and the US National Park Service have complained about visitors prying off pieces from important geological features to make them as well as interfering with existing cairns and the destruction of important trail markers. In the Peak District one man has made his mission to kick down the dozens of stacks that he finds. BBC News reported that:
‘Many have been created by taking stones from an old wall which may have damaged the habitats of the small creatures that live inside the wall and may have long term effects according to the National Trust who will also disassemble any stacks.
The stacks are seen as :
…. not to mark any burial sites or act as markers but just create unnecessary stacks for aesthetic purposes forgetting their original purpose as wayfinding tools and symbols rather than decorations.’
The stones that have been left behind on the little seawall shrine, have presumably, come from the beach below and are a poignant symbol of remembrance signifying that the departed has been visited. The stones emphasise the enduring nature of memory and ite sbaility to enable the departed to live on. He is not forgotten by those who knew him and he died at one of his favourite places. RIP.
Loren Rhoads is a US based committed taphophile or cemetery enthusiast, and has written several brilliant, informative books on cemeteries, in the US and further afield. These include:
199 Cemeteries to see before you die
222 Cemeteries to see before you die
Wish you Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel
Death’s Garden Revisited, Personal Relationships with Cemeteries
She is an absolute doyenne in the taphophile world and Loren’s latest, ‘Still Wish you Were Here: More Adventures in Cemetery Travel’ is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. The backing has already exceeded the requested amount which means that Loren can achieve even more with her book.
In her accompanying video Loren describes ‘Still Wish You Were Here’ as being:
‘part travel memoir, part cemetery history with 36 graveyard travel essays written for various organisations and publications.’
She visited 50 burial sites from Michigan, to London, Singapore, Barcelona, Tokyo and more and has confessed to ‘absolutely loving cemeteries and their stories.’ She finds cemeteries as inspiring as I do . Check out her video at:
I was one of the people who were invited to take part in ‘Death’s Garden Revisited: Personal Relationships with Cemeteries’ which was also successfully funded on Kickstarter. It was a fabulous looking book and I was proud to be part of it and to read other essays by fellow taphophiles. So, I have every faith in Loren creating another terrific book on cemeteries and have backed it myself! But don’t take my word for it – this is what the Association for Gravestone Studies have said:
Every little helps and there are several ‘rewards’ for different levels of backing including a cemetery party! So please, if you are a fellow taphophile and are able to , please consider supporting Loren’s book – if anyone can do it she can!
In light of the mass dial found at St Mary’s In the Marsh, I thought it might be timely to repeat the 2021 Symbol of the Month about them. Easily missed as they are not always where you expect to find them, they are survivors from a time where there were no time keepers such as clocks. People rose with the sun and went to bed at sunset which is why they were so important to villages and their inhabitants.
Despite the somewhat dispiriting summer, I was determined to escape from the house and see at least one or two local churches. My little part of Kent is known as Charles Dickens country (I’m not sure that he knows about this) and there are several buildings and churches associated with him.
One of these is St James’s church at Cooling. Although closed for services, it is still kept open by local people on most days. The Churches Conservation Trust take care of it and it’s in an isolated spot which borders onto marshes. It’s also a fair walk from the nearest town, Cliffe. I didn’t see any signs of much of a village there although there is a 14th century ruined castle nearby. St James’s is the end of a terrace of houses appropriately named Dickens Walk.
l’ll talk more about St James in a later post as it inspired one of Dickens most atmospheric scenes in ‘Great Expectations’ with the childrens graves in the churchyard. But while I was there, I found a symbol set within a wall that I had heard of but had never previously seen an example – this was the Mass Dial. I have to admit that if it hadn’t been pointed out on a display board within the church that I might have missed it as it’s set into an outer wall of the church. Not many have survived and Victorian restoration may have meant that they are found in odd places.
Mass dials are rare survivors and were a way of telling time before the invention of mechanised clocks and timepieces in the 14th century.
It was the Anglo-Saxons who established the dials. There had been confusion with all the different calendar systems such as the Lunar and Julian, and with a largely illiterate population, a visual way of telling the time was necessary.
It was the Anglo-Saxons who established the dials. There had been confusion with all the different calendar systems such as the Lunar and Julian, and with a largely illiterate population, a visual way of telling the time was necessary.
According to the Building Conservation website:
‘the Anglo Saxons divided night and day into 8 artificial divisions known in Old English as Tid or Tides. The 4 daylight divisions were called:
Morgen – 6am – 9am
Undern – 9am to noon
Middaeg – Noon to 3pm
Geletendoeg – 3pm to 6pm.
Morning, noon and evening are still in use as the last remnants of this division still in use today as are moontide, yuletide and shrovetide.’
But, throughout the Middle Ages, the Catholic church emphasised the reciting of prayers and fixed times during the day as pre-Reformation Britain was still a Catholic country. These were known as the Divine Offices and were:
Matins – pre-dawn
Prime (6am)
Terce (9am)
Sext (12pm)
None (3pm)
Vespers (sunset
Nocturnes (after sunset)
However, these were not set as the sun might not shine for a few days and if a mistake was made then the parish priest might end up celebrating certain feasts on different days from a neighbouring parish.
They were a form of medieval sun dial and originally the hole in the centre of the dial would have contained a horizontal wooden or metal rod that cast a shadow. This was known as a ‘gnomon’ which is pronounced as No Mon. These may well have been the local community’s only way of telling the time although medieval life revolved around getting up at sunrise and going to bed at sunset.
According to the British Sundial Society,
‘mass dials can be found on the south side of many churches. They are usually small and often located on the walls, buttresses, windows and doorways of a church. However, they can also appear in more unlikely places such as inside churches and on north walls where the sun rarely shines. But they have also been found in porches suggesting that the porch was built sometime after the dial was made.’
The Society goes onto suggest that this may be
‘due to the stone blocks having been re-used in the rebuilding of the church.’
The location of the Cooling one may indicate that it’s been moved.
Again, according to Building Conservation:
‘if a mass dial is found anywhere other than a church and other than the south elevation of a church, this usually means that it has been moved from its original location often as part of a Victorian restoration. In such cases, the dials were sometimes rebuilt into the fabric upside down, making them unreadable.’
The positioning of mass dials is important and can vary. They may be on the smooth cornerstone or quoin of a tower, nave or chancel, above a porch or on a door or window jamb. Often they are set at eye level and in one church it is cut into a window ledge.
‘Some have either a few or many radiating lines, {others} have ‘hour’ lines within the circles or semi circles and others are constructed with a ring of ‘pock’ marks drilled into the stone.’
British Sundial Society
There are also variants in the way that the hour lines are numbered as they may have Roman numerals or even Arabic ones. They’re also known as scratch dials as
‘many are quite crudely scratched into the stone.’ British Sundial Society
The 14th century brought mechanical clocks that created a regulated 24 hour time period. As a result, medieval life changed as it was no longer so reliant on daylight. However, mass dials were still in use but now they were a complete circle with lines radiating from the central gnomon to simulate the 24 hour clock. But by the 16th century they had fallen out of use. Sundials and mechanical locks had overtaken them and it was no longer the Roman Catholic church that dominated after the Reformation.
Mass dials are of great archaeological and historic importance. However, many of them are now indecipherable due to erosion and vandalism and people may not even realise what they are or their significance.
Edith Nesbit is buried in the churchyard of St Mary in the Marsh which was our next church. We left Brenzett and its attractive cats to travel through the wonderful Kent countryside. Blossom foamed over the hedgerows and the fields and marshes seemed to stretch on forever. There was a sense that Nature was beginning to stretch herself and come back to life after the winter.
St Mary in the Marsh was a more substantial church and we were greeted by the Star Inn which ‘would have been Edith’s local’ but is now a private house. It’s a large, rambling building and was opposite the church. We soon found her last resting place in front of St Mary’s lying under the morning sun and with a simple wooden rail as a marker. It was Tommy, her second husband, who erected the first wooden rail commemorating Edith. This has suffered over the years and is now inside the church porch with a small plaque. The one in the churchyard today is a replacement put up by the E Nesbit Society.
St Mary’s was less plain inside than St Eanswith although there were still box pews and whitewashed walls. There was a magnificent triptych on one wall and another little plaque inside the nave dedicated to Edith. Three pairs of eyes were watching us as we explored. There were two small heads attached to two pillars of a sedilia by the altar and another, larger one at the base of a column.
Outside early bluebells nodded in the breeze and we found a medieval mass dial set into a wall. (please see Symbol of the Month – The Mass Dial published 18/10/21)
Afterwards we went on to explore churches and other places associated with Russell Thorndike and his famous creation whose exploits took place on the Marshes, Dr Syn.
Our final port of call was St Mary’s Bay in Dymchurch where we saw the house known as ‘The Jolly Boat’ which was E Nesbit’s final home which she are with Tommy. It is now a holiday home and is situated at the end of Nesbit Road appropriately enough. As we admired it, we were lucky enough to see a steam train from the Romney and Hythe railway come puffing past as it steamed into the station nearby. In the town one of our party had spotted a blue plaque on a house called ‘The Cottage’ which commemorated its famous residents: the painter Paul Nash, Noel Coward and Edith all stayed there. We did wonder if it had been at the same time and one of our party commented that ‘it must have been quite a party!’
E Nesbit had a fascinating life with her strong Socialist views and published over 60 books, some of which are still in print today. The film version of ‘The Railway Children’ is a much loved classic although her ghost stories are less well known. They were reprinted last year in ‘The House of Silence’ by Handheld Press.
It was a wonderful day travelling the marshes and understanding how they inspired Edith where she is still remembered with such affection.
shadows fly away 