One man went to mow, went to mow the graveyard.

Every so often I take my turn on a volunteer rota to mow the grass in the graveyard of our village church. I like doing it for a number of reasons: I get to become a 'boy racer' for a couple of hours speeding around on a ride-on mower and, in the process, I get to enjoy some fantastic views. I've been doing this for a few years now and, in that time, I've got to know the headstones 'on my patch' quite well. I always so 'hello' to those I actually knew in life and I regularly talk to total strangers.  I always find something to ponder upon as I whizz around. What was the deceased like? How did they die? What was their story? Here's a taste of just some I come across.

There are a few things about this headstone that intrigue me. Firstly, why the differing surnames for husband and wife? Secondly, what was Archibald Buller doing in the USA? Thirdly, the story of Hamilton Buller, of which I know a little. Hamilton was born locally, emigrated to Canada in 1913, joined the Canadian army in 1915, spent 3 years fighting in France, was invalided out due to being gassed and finally died in Stoke Climsland in 1919 of tuberculosis.

 

And here's a photograph of Hamilton Buller and one of his younger sisters, taken around 1908. I know exactly where they were standing when the photograph was taken and the backdrop is no longer one of industrial dereliction. The mine has long been closed and is now totally overgrown.

 

The Nathaniel Lobb named on this one also features on our WW1 memorial. He was awarded the Military Medal for some act of bravery but I've not been able to find out exactly for what. The Lobb family lived almost next door to where we live now and it is highly probable that Nathaniel visited our house. He may even have stood where I'm typing this.

 

Nathaniel Lobb was a career soldier and had served as a sapper in the Second Boer War. Here is his medal from that campaign - the Queen's South Africa Medal plus battle clasps - as they are displayed in the museum of the Royal Engineers at Chatham. In WW1 he was part of the Special Squad responsible for the introduction of gas warfare.......but that's another story.

 

One of the Pennington family of bell founders. They made the bells in the church and many for other churches in this part of the world. One of their foundries (they built temporary casting pits close to where the finished product was going to be hung) was just over the road, apparently, but no-one knows exactly where.

A breach of Health and Safety regulations?
Sacred
to the memory of
William Sampson
of the Parish of Phillack
in the County
He was killed in Redmoor Engine
Shaft thro' his comrades leaving a
piece of timber slip
thro' the lashings
April 7th 1835. Aged 31 years.Not that those responsible for the wording on the headstone bore a grudge! The accusatory tone still resonates after 175 years. Who were his careless comrades? Do their bones squirm in contrition and remorse?

The inscription reads:
Sacred
to the Memory of
Edward Weekes
(Late of Venterdon in this Parish)
Yeoman
Whose death was occasioned by a
fall from a horse April 29th 1833
Aged 30 Years
ALSO
Hannah Edward Weekes (His daughter)
Died November 2 1838
Age 5 3/4 YearsA quick calculation of the dates suggests that Edward Weekes' wife was in the final stages of pregnancy when her husband died. Presumably as the wife of a yeoman she was not left in dire straits but, nonetheless, it must have been very hard for her and even harder when her daughter died.

I've always felt for poor William Wilton, who died aged 80 in 1906. Within one month in 1870, he lost his wife Eliza on the 1st February and two children on 20th February, William aged 17 and Ellen, an infant. I can come up with a scenario for Eliza and Ellen as birth related deaths but why did William die on the same day as his sister? Perhaps all three had contracted some disease? Three deaths so close together cannot be coincidental