A Country Cemetery

Yesterday afternoon I had some free time, the sun was shining, the outdoors beckoned.   I decided to visit a couple of local churchyards.

This cemetery doesn't have a church - for the 13th century church was dismantled in 1660;  the stone was used to build a manor house.   The man responsible for this lived in the next village which is just a couple of fields walk away.  

Judging by some of the large pieces of dressed stone which have turned up in our rockery, I wouldn't be at all surprised if some have found their way to Parsonage Cottage over the last 350 years!


This row of stones always gets my attention.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to read the wording so I don't know whether they were all related in some way.

It is a simple, rural cemetery.   Although reasonably well kept now, it obviously suffered many years of neglect.  Quite a number of stones have been hidden within enormous yew trees, self sown and left to grow as they will.

Many stones have been lost.   Yet it is a very beautiful, very peaceful place.   I'm always happy to spend time exploring.

In one far corner there is the grave of a tiny baby, he died over 60 years ago.   His grave has been almost totally hidden within the shrubs and lower branches of trees, I have to crouch and crawl in to see it - OK, so I'm barking mad!    So does someone else, for the plastic and silk flowers are occasionally supplemented with new.  

I make it my mission to seek out the forgotten ones.     It seems wrong that some stones are almost completely inaccessible and yet they are the stones which can be the most easily read for they have been sheltered from the elements.
fliss&max