Today’s speaker was Ian Philp, a long-time friend of our member, Brian Moriarty, and he gave us a very interesting talk and visual display entitled “ Visit to a Yorkshire Churchyard”.
His interest started with a visit to the neglected churchyard of St. Matthews, Lightcliffe, some 5 years ago, and led to a restoration project which encouraged him to research the background and details of churchyards, in particular the information to be gleaned from gravestones, a practice known as “ taphophilia”.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the graves of many poor people are unmarked, only the wealthy being able to afford tombstones and gravestones, which come in the form of upright stones, ledger stones (i.e. laid flat) or even laid upside -down, and the visibility of the markings or carvings on them depends very much upon the material from which they are made, which varies in different parts of the country.
Carved crosses are now more prevalent than in the past, when Protestants viewed the cross as a Catholic symbol, but we now live in a more enlightened age!.
Much information can be gathered from the inscriptions on the stones, such as employment, descendants, length of epidemics etc. Indeed, in Wales, one can even learn where a person lived, there being so many people of the same name that distinguishing addresses had to be added!
Ian had done interesting research surrounding the history of War Graves, which in one example led him to discover how to enter Westminster Abbey without having to pay the rather expensive entrance fee!
All in all, a very interesting and informative talk surrounding a subject which would normally have been thought quite morbid.