The beautiful Lych gate has an inscription on the front and back sides.,It reads 'I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE' and the back has 'I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH'
A lych gate was added to a cemetery or churchyard to provide a shelter for mourners and the bier whilst funerals were arriving or departing. The word lych is spelt lich in some parts of the country and comes from the old English word for corpse.
Many of the graves are now overgrown. This is my great-great grandparents grave. Many have inlaid metal inscriptions which are now falling out.
This low flat type of grave seems to be the worst style for survival. The inscriptions on the low sides are prone to both frost damage and lichen & moss.
Many families were buried in graves of this style throughout the 19th and early 20th century. Nowadays am upright tombstone is more usual.
Over the summer, monumental inscriptions group members have been working hard at the Parish Cemetery in Turvey. At the initial survey it appeared straightforward and we would complete the cemetery quite quickly! How wrong we were … some years ago many of the early stones had been laid flat, both for easy maintenance and for safety. The grass had grown over many, covering them completely, and we have had to gently excavate to reveal the inscriptions, record and then carefully replace the turf. They were wonderfully preserved underneath!
The cemetery holds so many interesting memorials. For example, there were quite a few with strong military connections … Sergt. Major John Knight, late Royal Artillery, died in 1903, close by another soldier, possibly his son, Gunner George Knight, also of the Royal Artillery who ‘after 8 years service in India, came home to die” in1897, aged only 32. A fine coffin tomb in marble is dedicated to William Edward Alured Elliott, a Major General, born 1798, who died in 1873. Lieut. Col William Bartholomew Higgens MA, of the Bedfordshire Militia, who died in 1878 aged 80, has a grand cross dedicated to him. William Keech from Turvey, but who died in Nedford, a chorister at St Mary’s Church and also Bandmaster of the Bedfordshire Militia, and the widow of Robert Gillespie of the Royal Engineers, Louis Maria, who died in 1877, and two more with military connections. A soldier who gave his life in the service of his country in World War I whilst serving in the South African Heavy Artillery was Gunner Allan Vernon Beswick whilst Gunner Harry Ernest Wadsworth, of the Royal Artillery, is recorded on his family grave as dying in 1944 in a military hospital during World War II.
Some of the stories give clues as to occupations of those interred. Two Parish Clerks, one with 50 years service, Robert Main Wooding who died in 1935 and one of his predecessors, (was it his father?) Richard Wooding, for 23 years the Clerk and also the first sexton of this cemetery. A schoolmaster, a publican and “runner” for the Oakley Hunt are also recorded, as well as a lawyer, Edward Kent Karslake QC, who died in 1872.
Also, in a village about as far away from the sea as it is possible to get, is the grave of Sidmouth Stowell Skipworth, Commander RN.
Some memorials will be able to give family historians clues as to place of birth, such as Harriett Kelly of Cargins, Tulsk, Co. Roscommon, Ireland who died in 1870, or place of death, such as Fanny, daughter of William Payne who died in Atherton, North Queensland in 1917.
Other burial places recorded are All Souls, Kensal Green (Anna Maria Sanders Stewart), Nottingham Rock (Alfred Mardlin) and West Ham (Charles Thomas West).
The above snippets taken from just the 200 stones so far recorded at Turvey, with 300 still to go, show examples of the wealth of extra information that memorials can give, far more that will ever show up in Parish registers alone.
This article was previously published in Bedfordshire Family History Society Journal, Vol. 14 No 3 Sept 2003 and is reproduced here with the kind permission of its author, Di Smith.
