Gravestones, Tombs & Memorials (3 page)

FIG 1.7:
Although effigies were a feature of the altar tombs within the building they can occasionally be found outside in the churchyard. Those still in good condition may have been re-sited from inside, those worn so as to be unrecognisable may be in their original position. This husband and wife pair dating from around 1600 in the churchyard at Stone, Staffs were inside the medieval church but when a new building was erected a few yards away they were left stranded outside, with the gentleman losing his legs and hands during the demolition.

In the Middle Ages the churchyard was often the only public space in the parish, so was used for fairs, with stalls set up within the hallowed ground and sports events like archery (these would probably have taken place on the grave-free north side). The priest may also have had his house set up in a corner of the ground with his own livestock able to graze God's Acre, leading to some families planting willow or brambles to keep the animals off the graves!

The Reformation and the founding of the Church of England in the early 1530s heralded in more than a century of religious turmoil. Iconoclasts destroyed any Catholic symbols, most notably the cross, and many of the memorials which did exist were lost, including the churchyard cross (the burial service was even banned under the Commonwealth, with bodies taken to the grave without ceremony or any memorial). The Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 brought an end to many of these Puritanical extremes and coincided with a growth in the number of successful farmers, merchants and other professionals who now wanted and could afford permanent memorials in the churchyard. It is generally from the mid 17th century that the earliest gravestones and tombs will be found.

FIG 1.8:
A view over an imaginary medieval churchyard, with labels of some of the key features.

FIG 1.9:
It is common to find the remains of the stepped base of the medieval churchyard cross on the south side of many churches today. Some remain empty while others have had a sundial mounted on them (as in this case on a short column) or a replica cross fitted.

Although some Anglicans started to object to internal burials, the nobility continued to be interred inside most churches with Classical monuments, wall plaques and grave slabs filling up every available space, a practice which continued into the 19th century. Outside small markers with just the deceased's initials, decorated headstones and Classical chest tombs quickly clogged up the once open churchyard with memorials vying with each other to get as close as possible to the south side of the chancel (being buried near to the altar could be just as important outside). The effect was further enhanced by an 18th-century fashion for planting trees and erecting walls around the boundary.

FIG 1.10:
We are so familiar with the grey tones of churchyard memorials that it may come as a shock to learn that many gravestones and tombs were painted sometimes with bright colours! It may have been just the sculptured upper section which had this treatment, with details and lettering picked out in gold, white or black and it probably lost its intensity within months of exposure to the elements. However, fragments on shaded parts such as splashes of red and black on this tomb in Shrewsbury can still be found today.

Attitudes towards the dead also changed. The grave, which had largely been ignored after the burial as the deceased had moved onto a better place, was by the early 19th century seen as a link between the living family and the dead. Public displays of grief were reflected in the change to more flowery and emotional inscriptions while the grave itself was treated as the family's private property with railings and kerbs becoming fashionable.

The oft neglected churchyards crammed with headstones struggling to be seen above long grass and ivy which had so excited 18th-century writers were not the surroundings many Victorians sought when making weekly visits on the now more strictly observed Sabbath Day. Of greater concern, however, was the poor service from alternative private cemeteries, some of which were no more than chapels with thousands of malodorous coffins stacked up in the basements. Added to this was the public health issue with overcrowding in urban churchyards. After decades of ignoring the problem the authorities, through a series of acts in the 1840s and 1850s, banned interments inside a church, stopped new burials in many city churchyards and opened new, landscaped public cemeteries.

FIG 1.11:
Pre-19th century gravestones generally faced away from the burial as in the top example which has a coffin stone marking the position of the grave and the text on the visible lichen-covered side. By the Victorian period gravestones had their text overlooking the deceased with the grave marked out by low railings or a stone kerb (bottom). Note though that many earlier gravestones could have been resited so may not be in their original position.

FIG 1.12:
Railings around graves appear from the end of the 18th century and remained popular through the 1800s. Some were possibly fitted due to the public hysteria over body-snatching but most were to mark out what was now regarded as the private family plot. Simple spearhead verticals with urns on the corners were popular early on, with more elaborate Gothic designs available in the Victorian period. Many were removed for scrap metal in the Second World War leaving behind the square lead-filled holes where they had been originally fixed.

These public, and the more exclusive private cemeteries quickly began to fill with memorials to all members of society, with the rich now kicked out from inside the church keen to emphasise their position in society with towering monuments, shrines and family mausoleums. The middle classes kept their heads above the masses as machine cutting and improved transport made imported marble prefabricated into statues of angels and rustic crosses affordable. The working classes (who still accounted for around 70 to 80% of the population by 1900) could now afford permanent memorials, often through burial clubs and friendly societies. Many of these memorials were small gravestones or markers with just names and dates carved upon them. The last resting place of the poorest was still usually unmarked, with some laid out in common graves (pits in which wooden coffins were stacked until full and then covered up).

Victorian legislation had also in part changed the method of burial. Graves had previously been dug to no set depth. Many were deep, especially after the Reformation, to permit further family burials on top while others were only a foot or so below the surface, which was a great problem when body-snatching was rife. Legislation passed in 1847 meant that the top of the coffin had to be more than 30 inches below the surface and many local authorities, who took over responsibility for burials from the late 19th century, stipulated it should be deeper still.