Charles Boyce

© Godric Godricson

War Dead - Great Cressingham

© Godric Godricson

Celtic Cross

© Godric Godricson

 "Through a glass darkly"



"Through a glass darkly"

© Godric Godricson



Cornish Celtic Cross

© Godric Godricson

Have a look at Joy Neighbours comments on the Celtic Cross . Joy is a member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits.

Andrew Brown d. 14th January 1768

"Here lyeth the remains of Andrew Brown,

who departed this life the 14th day of

January 1768, aged 66 years. Also of

Mary his wife, who departed this life the

3d day of July 1802, aged 88 years."

The subject scarcely needs to be interpreted, being obviously intended to illustrate the well-known  passage in the Burial Service: "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised ... then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in Victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" The reference in another ritual to the Lord of Life trampling the King of Terrors beneath his feet seems also to be indicated, and it will be noticed that the artist has employed a rather emphatic smile to pourtray triumph.

It was but natural to suppose that this work was the production of some local genius of the period, and I searched for other evidences of his skill. Not far away I found the next design, very nearly of the same date.

Project Gutenburg : GRAVESTONES OLD AND CURIOUS.

With One Hundred and Two Illustrations  BY W. T. VINCENT

Brick lined Grave



Caister Saint Edmund

© Godric Godricson



Modern Christian witness

Caister Saint Edmund

© Godric Godricson

Thomas Alderton d.10th April 1767

"To the memory of Thomas, the son of

Thomas and Ann Alderton, who departed

this life the 10th day of April 1767, in the

13th year of his age."

The same artist almost of a certainty produced both of these figurative tombstones. The handicraft is similar, the idea in each is equally daring and grotesque, and the phraseology of the inscriptions is nearly identical. I thought both conceptions original and native to the place, but I do not think so now. In point of taste, the first, which is really second in order of date, is perhaps less questionable than the other. The hope of a joyful resurrection, however rudely displayed, may bring comfort to wounded hearts; but it is difficult to conceive the feelings of bereaved parents who could sanction the representation of a beloved boy, cut off in the brightest hour of life, coffined and skeletoned in the grave!

Above the coffin on Alderton's headstone is an ornament, apparently palms. It is not unusual to find such meaningless, or apparently meaningless, designs employed to fill in otherwise blank spaces, though symbols of death, eternity, and the future state are in plentiful command for such purposes. Something like this same ornament may be found on a very old flat stone in the churchyard of Widcombe, near Bath. It stretches the full width of the stone, and is in high relief, which has preserved it long after the accompanying inscription has vanished. The probable date may be about 1650.

Project Gutenburg : GRAVESTONES OLD AND CURIOUS.

With One Hundred and Two Illustrations  BY W. T. VINCENT

St. Peter's Terrington - Norfolk

“The parish clerk of St. Peter’s, Terrington, has caused his coffin and gravestone to be prepared, although in excellent health.  The former he keeps in his sleeping room, and uses as a wardrobe, and the latter stands in the church, ready to be put down when required.  The stone contains the following:—

“This aged clerk, long ere he died,
His coffin had and placed by his bedside;
His neighbours all well know the truth is spoke—
’Twas made of Mr. John Perry’s best oak;
His old friend Death just touch’d him with his spear
And in pure kindness laid him quietly here.

“The upper part of the stone contains the name, with blanks for cutting age, &c., when the time of his dissolution shall take place.”


Title: Norfolk Annals  A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth Century, Vol. 1     Author: Charles Mackie

Momenti Mori - Malta



Momenti Mori - Malta

© Godric Godricson



This is the sort of 'Momenti Mori' that you tend to see on the Island of Malta around older cemeteries and catacombs. this is a traditional Catholic motif and exhorts the people to a better life by reference to the coming judgement. This theological threat seems a little outdated although the image still has a power and relevance for some people. For me, the image is a way of connecting with the past without buying into everything that our ancestors believed.

Sandstone Monuments



A range of materials are present

© Godric Godricson



In general, rural communities in Norfolk did not have stone grave monuments before the 17^th Century with some rare exceptions.  

Monuments that did exist would be made from wood and may have taken the form of a cross with a name inscribed simply on the monument. Such a transitory monument would decay naturally over time and would be buried with the next inhumation or burial on the same site. In the use of wood for monuments we have a philosophical acceptance of the transitory nature of life with a rapid return to the soil from which we came. The use of bio degradable materials for monuments  witnesses the idea of a burial site in the Cemetery being rented from the Church rather than being purchased in perpetuity like a house or a field. The wooden cross indicate both poverty and also the idea of communal burial where we share in death what we also shared in life. A wooden monument was arguably an acceptance of a communal fate that was shared by all in a non permanent and transient environment.  Putting it simply, humanity had little hope of permanence in a world that was poorly understood and where death was an ever present reality.

The individualised monument is a sign and symbol of the growing confidence of humanity who increasingly asserts itself in the landscape. Rather than being mere animals who are born and then disappear with only a simple wooden marker, the monument  is part of an increasing claim towards immortality. Humanity is saying that it exists, it has a right to eternity and that a record of our existence is essential. The cemetery becomes a place of grief-pilgrimage, a loci for an increasing ancestor worship and a place for the development of a rather ‘mawkish’ view of death and decomposition.

With the passing of time and the increase in affluence we find that in East Anglia, the most common type of stone used for monuments became sandstone. This soft sedimentary stone is often reddish in colour and is often confused with the harder and more expensive Limestone monument although the two are quite different. The emergence of sandstone for monuments can be seen in the 17^th Century and the spread of this form of stone is widespread across the geographical region which has little (if any) quality stone quarried locally.



18th Century Putti in King's Lynn

© Godric Godricson



The sandstone memorial is often in the form of ‘momenti Mori’ or ‘skull and crossbones’ motif before that frightening design  gradually gives way to a more ‘Enlightenment’ style that comprised ‘Putti’ or smiling angels who are often portrayed as children.  A widespread acceptance of the ‘Enlightenment’ and rationality reflected in monuments is often not captured in the history books and is not captured in sculpture commissioned by the Authorities in the period. Sandstone ‘putti’ smile at us from the monuments in a serene manner  very far removed from the skull and crossbones.



How we perceive death as a society is captured in the sandstone monuments of the region. Death and the after life is culturally less frightening although it is still personally devastating for individuals and for families. Society moves from the conception of a punitive God who smites down the sinner and we start to sense a less vengeful God who is surrounded by ‘Putti’  and we move towards this Providential God in the 18^th C. A  Providential God is the God of forgiveness and salvation rather than of punishment, pain and suffering and this new vision of God sets the tone for the cemetery itself which becomes lighter and more accepting as winessed by the Putti.



Cracking - rural parish mid Norfolk

© Godric Godricson





Shelling - rural parish mid Norfolk

© Godric Godricson





A perception of the Providential God conveyed in the Putti is increasingly captured in Sandstone. Such monuments are often carved without immense skill by rural craftsmen. However, whilst sandstone is accessible as a material for monuments it is also a very soft material and sedimentary by nature. Sandstone is formed from grains that easily yield to a chisel but which  finds itself similarly shaped and eroded by the wind and rain that is so evident in the English landscape. Monuments sited in hill top cemeteries are often badly eroded and the rain that falls on the monuments often leads to a sort of ‘shelling’. This action caused by the elements means that the external layer of sandstone bubbles and falls away. The monument is very much doomed from the day it is installed. We start to witness a monument that is an increasing victim to the ‘freeze-thaw’ of each  successive winter.  The words on the monument become illegible and another piece of history is lost unless a survey is carried out on the cemetery. Monuments in the UK are also subject to algae, lichen and pollution deposits, which degrade the monument and all combine to the decay of the inscription. 



Rationalism and the Enlightenment

© Godric Godricson



The  sandstone monument is everywhere in East Anglia. It pops up in the 17^th century with a new affluence and a growing confidence on the part of humanity. No-longer does humanity in the region  perceive itself as a mere ‘beast of the field’ who merely rents a corner of the Churchyard. Instead, humanity becomes assertive and sure of its place in creation. We see local dynasties emerge in the way that a family would plant monuments in a row or in a prominent place within the cemetery. Whilst the landed family would have their marble tombs and elegant barley sugar columns within the parish Church, a growing bourgeoisie would have the sandstone monument in the cemetery.  Under these monument,  all in a row or in a block, the increasingly affluent population proclaimed their new wealth and power. It is as if the monuments proclaim “We are here and we have arrived!”

Similarly, the sandstone monuments say that God is no longer to be feared and, instead, God becomes perceived as the Providential God who is interested in our lives and welfare. The sandstone monuments display the power of God whilst also displaying a sort of intimacy with God and His plan for eternity.