Sunday 10 March 2013

A village Cemetery



Blewbury is a village I pass through twice a day on my way to and from work, like most villages in the UK it has an old church (St Michaels) and churchyard which is full or not used.



St Michaels Church


 St Michaels Churchyard












Some of the old headstones lining the path to the church



Not sure if it's his grave or a memorial but he did leave a message.











Inside St Michaels it is worth looking around as it is quite old an still many of the features



Though the bell tower is not one of the places you can visit, I had an invite
 
The west tower has a ring of eight bells. Joseph Carter of Reading cast the sixth bell in 1586.  As well as his name and the year, the bell bears the legend Blessed be the name of the Lorde. Henry II Knight, also of Reading, cast the third bell in 1663. His successor Samuel Knight cast the fourth bell in 1689 and the fifth bell in 1704. Edward Read of Aldbourne, Wiltshire cast the seventh bell in 1752. John Hunt, who briefly ran a bell-foundry at Cholsey, cast the tenor bell in 1825. These may have completed a ring of six bells, until John Taylor & Co of Loughborough cast the present treble and second bells in 1906. St Michael's has also a Sanctus bell that Thomas II Mears of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast in 1819 (History taken from Wikipedia)

And an even more impressive view from the top of the tower.




Heading out of the village you will find two cemetery's  this older one which is dedicated to the men of the village who gave their lived in the war




And the new one which is used now.





The older one which is no longer used is worth a visit





























There are a couple of war graves and one of a local paster and cricketer

 The cemetery is well kept and still have people visiting to leave flowers.
 
Though some grow on their own





One side you can find the small graves of children who have  passed away before their time which I always find sad






Worse when they have only been on this world for less than two weeks and now seem forgotten but she does have a bunch of snowdrops growing on her grave.






Snowdrops growing through fallen leaves by one of the older graves in the Blewbury  cemetery, beauty in decay.


4 comments:

  1. Fabulous post. What great pictures. Seemingly forgotten children's graves are always sad, but by posting a picture, they will never truly be forgotten.

    Thank you for linking up with Cemetery Sunday

    Beneath Thy Feet

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice post - I miss the age and tranquility of places like this - for all the sadness of the places they never seem that upsetting.

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

    PS: if you read the first line of your post you will find an amusing typo!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the comment and I've sorted the typo
    Bill

    ReplyDelete
  4. An interesting post Bill. We have so many of these churches and graveyards in the UK and they are such an historical heritage. Thanks for the link.

    ReplyDelete

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