St Bartholomew's

St Bartholomew's, Elvaston

St Bartholomew's is the Parish Church for Elvaston and the near-by villages of Thulson and Ambaston, in Derbyshire, England. The church sits close to Elvaston Castle, which isn't a true castle, more a stately home. This is a statue of a saint from one of the ends of the church.

The church was restored from an early version in the 1400's with some modification and extensions in the 1800's. The church is Grade I listed.

Grotesques

A Grotesque 

From the now redundant Church of St Werburgh in Derby city centre, Derbyshire, England.

The church has been re-built over time, with the oldest parts dating from the 1600's. There are some interesting features to be seen inside the church, such as the wrought iron pulpit and font cover, a reredos inscribed with the Ten Commandments, Lord's Prayer and with Queens Anne's Royal coat of arms sat above it.

In 1735, Dr Smauel Johnson married Elizabeth Porter in the church. Dr Johnson was an English writer, who published after nine years of work, A Dictionary of the English Language. Although not the first dictionary, it was the most commonly used one for 150 years until the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928.

Grotesques should not be confused with gargoyles, which have the water spouts. Both are features of Gothic styled churches and buildings.

All Saints Church, Bakewell

All Saints Church

All Saints Church in Bakewell, Derbyshire, England, is a Grade I listed church that was founded in 920. The churchyard still contains two 9th Century Saxon crosses. There is a collection of fragments of Saxon carved stone in one of the porches and some ancient stone coffins.

The present church dates from the 12th Century. The church looks out over the small market town of Bakewell and rural Derbyshire. 

William and Ann Blount

William and Ann Blount

From the graveyard of All Saint's Church at Rempstone, Nottinghamshire, England. 

Beneath

Are deposited the Remains of

William Blount       Ann, the wife of,

           Who departed     William Blount         

    this mortal Life     she departed  

July the 10th 1795;  this mortal Life

               Aged 72 Years            the 4th of August 1791    

                                Aged 70 Years

His Epitaph

Upon the Road I met pale Death,

Who soon deprived me of my Breath;

All in a Moment awful Thought

My Soul eternal Mansions sought;

From accident, no man is free,

The next, Oh reader! may be thee

Then when you view my Grave, my dust

Prepare, be ready, die you must.

Her Epitaph

All her Afflictions she with Patience bore,

Was not surpriz'd when Death was at the Door

For in her Maker was her only trust,

In Hopes to rise in Glory with the Just.

Our clues here suggest that William may have died as the result of an accident, as the epitaph warns us it could happen to anyone, and Ann possibly from an illness, of which it came as no surprise that death was at the door. Still, reaching your 70's was quite an achievement in those days.

Afflictions Sore

Afflictions Sore

A popular epitaph adorns this stone found in the abandoned graveyard of St Peter in the Rushes, Rempstone, Nottinghamshire. 

Afflictions sore long time I bore,

Physicians were in vain:

Till God did please to give me ease

And rid me of my pain.

An epitaph such as this gives a hint as to how the person died, in this case, in great pain after a lengthy illness. Epitaphs such as this give a sense of the fragility of life before modern medicine, but 81 was a good age for the day.

The inscription reads:

Here lyeth interr'd the

Body of Thomas Steel

Who departed this Life the 26th

Of June Ann Dom 1731

In the 81st Year of his Age

Betty Orton WAAF

Betty Orton

In the cemetery at Sileby, Leicestershire, England, was a war grave for Betty Orton, who was in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF).  For obvious reasons, war graves of women are not a common find. I have tried to find out if anything specific happened on the 11th June, but was unsuccessful. 
Women did not fight in combat, but they were exposed to any of the "home front" action that the men were, for example working in military targets such as munitions factories/stores, reconnaissance and intelligence operations. Nursing orderlies in the WAAF would also be on board aircraft, flying to and from the site of battle and this could put them at risk of aviation accidents or being targeted by the enemy.

Sileby Cemetery

Sileby Cemetery

The Cemetery at Sileby, Leicestershire, England, was opened in 1881 and consists of two mortuary chapels and two acres of grounds. Yew tree hedging lines the route up to the chapels hiding many of the older stones behind it. This is one such example, and the only one I forgot to get a date for. There were some good examples of slate stones, not often seen outside of older graveyards, but many of the stones were too modern for me, and therefore not so interesting.