A memorial to a policeman murdered while attending a domestic disturbance

 
Kingsland Cemetery, Shrewsbury, Shropshire
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A massive cemetery requiring four separate visits to complete the survey.
 
 


Police Constable Richard Gray was shot while attending a domestic disturbance.

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A freed British slave and his former master buried in the same grave.

 
St Wendron, Wendron, Cornwall
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It was pleasant to meet a couple from Australia who were looking for family names at the same time as we were doing our survey. 
 
Even better was making such an unusual discovery!
 
 


A freed slave and his former master buried in the same grave.

All my new discoveries are published first on the social history group on Facebook so if you want to keep up to date with what is happening you will need to subscribe to the group by clicking on the link below.

Unusual first names on graves - Obedience and Zipporah

 
Lye and Wollescote Cemetery, Lye, West Midlands
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Sometimes we discover very unusual first names on graves. These are two of the best.
 
 

A lady called Obedience
 
 

A lady called Zipporah

 
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Five boys drowned in a single accident!

 
Kilmartin Cemetery, Argyll and Bute, Scotland
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Kilmartin, 30 miles south of Oban, is conveniently placed for exploring a large number of archaelogical sites. The war memorial, in the form of an arch over the entrance to the Kirk grounds, is of a most unusual design.
 
 
 

Five boys were accidently drowned in one accident in 1901.

 
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Aged 105 and lived in three centuries (1799-1904)

 
Market Harborough, Leicestershire
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We found it rather curious that this major cemetery didn't have a notice board at the entrance.
 
 
 
Born 1799, died 1904 at age 105. This is very old for somebody born in the 18th century and who lived in three centuries. One of our best ever finds.

 
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Died on 29th February 1934 - an impossible date!

 St Mary Magdalene, Horton, Northamptonshire
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A good example of a church that has been progressively extended.

 

Frank is said to have died 29th February 1934 -
but 1934 wasn't a leap year so there wasn't a 29th February!

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Died by drowning after he fell through the ice!

 
Christ Church, Wellington, Shropshire
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Although we visited this church in mid-May there was a very chilly wind and we were pleased we were wearing our winter coats.


 
 
 

Thomas Bladen died by drowning after he fell through the ice on Dothill Pool in January 1870.

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Died by suffocation on board a ship

 
St Agnes Cemetery, St Agnes, Cornwall
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St. Agnes was a Roman girl who was only thirteen years old when she suffered martyrdom for her Faith.
 
 

Stephen Cotton met his death by suffocation on board a ship in harbour.

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A memorial to a murdered mother and baby

 
Westbury Cemetery, Westbury, Wiltshire
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There were some strange looking chapels (or family vaults?) in the cemetery.
 
 

Two murder victims - a mother and her young baby.

 
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The exact date of death wasn't known. How sad is that!

 
Marston Lane Cemetery, Bedworth, Warwickshire
(Click on the photo for a larger version)
 
 
I wonder why the exact date of death was not known?
 
 
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Married for 18 weeks - to the vicar

 
St Denys', Cold Ashby, Northamptonshire
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We had driven through this village loads of times before we finally stopped to look at the church and the overflow cemetery.
 
 
 
Caroline Bateman was married for just 18 weeks - to the vicar.
 
 
 
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A life-sized statue - then benign neglect!

 
St Mary, Llanaber, Gwynedd, Wales
 
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This cliff-top cemetery was in three parts. The oldest part by the church was very overgrown and in parts it was too dangerous to survey.
 
 
This life-sized statue was in the neglected part of the cemetery.

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A war-time marriage that lasted just 2 weeks

 
St. Lawrence, Napton-on-the-Hill, Warwickshire
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Married for just two weeks - how very sad but not uncommon during wartime.

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William died 1 day before his 100th birthday.


London Road Cemetery, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire
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The husband died 1 day short of his 100th birthday and his wife died aged 102.

 
All my new discoveries are published first on the social history group on Facebook so if you want to keep up to date with what is happening you will need to subscribe to the group by clicking on the link below.

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Welcome to Claire and Martin Nicholson's Cemetery Project

The project started off with the two of us concentrating on recording the graves of people who reached the age of at least 100 years. However we soon discovered that we were finding other memorials that were of particular interest or rarity and we decided that these too deserved to be recorded for posterity. The project began in October 2008 and since then Claire and I have visited 738 different locations. That is an average of nearly 14 sites a month.

One of the great joys of the work is that you never know what you are going to find when you walk through the gate. I still get a buzz of excitement when we arrive at a new venue and Claire turns left and I turn right. We have a strange tradition that we go "beep, beep, beep" when we find a grave of interest - providing of course the other person is in ear-shot!

Just under half the time we don't find anything worth recording. This usually happens when there are only a handful of memorials in the churchyard. By far the largest site where we didn't find anybody who reached the age of 100 was Shire Lodge Cemetery in Corby.

Sometimes we are left puzzled, almost annoyed, by inscriptions that lack important details.  It is not unknown for the surname of the deceased to not appear on the memorial and I well recall one stone that didn't included any of the names of the deceased just "Mum and Dad"! Almost as strange are the patterned stones with gold inscriptions that are unreadable within a very few years of being erected.

You might think that once we had examined over 4,100,000 graves we would be immune to getting the proverbial "lump in the throat". Absolutely not the case. It is not always the graves of babies that have a strongest emotional impact. For me it was twin grave of Daphne Joan Stokes and Peter William Stokes that was the saddest of them all.




Daphne Joan Stokes and Peter William Stokes were killed during an unauthorised flight at RAF High Ercall in August 1943. Their young son, also called Peter, was brought up by his maternal grandmother in Hove, who forever mourned the loss of her beautiful daughter.


********** 
 
A new book for grave hunters everywhere!
 
 
The authors have viewed millions of gravestones, and are offering readers a selection of the rare and unusual gravestones that they have seen, with full-colour illustrations. Each category of type of gravestone, age of person, cause of death, rare names, and errors found on gravestones are given a points score to indicate rarity.
 
 
 

All my new discoveries are published first on the social history group on Facebook so if you want to keep up to date with what is happening you will need to subscribe to the group by clicking on the link below.

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