All Saints, Bakewell, Derbyshire

02/06/2015: The path leading to the church is flanked with uprooted head and footstones and parts of box tombs, which leaves large areas of the churchyard plain, green grass. Nice and easy to maintain.

There are several Brunts in the churchyard and on the church wall next to the porch a memorial to Jonathan Brunt, 19 year old ship's 'Surgeon' on a ship which was wrecked on Fayal in the Azores in 1779.

The church porch, added in 1400 is lined with medieval - and older - grave slabs.

There are headstones to a plasterer, a plumber, an apothcary and a ropemaker. Also to a man who was killed while working on the church tower, one killed by lightning and another killed in a mill when 'caught by a shaft'.

We know that Hannah Hardwick died on January 30th in the 19th century, but we don't know what year. Her headstone was probably carved with the wrong year, the surface was chopped out and patched and then later the patch dropped out. All we see is the slot where the patch once fitted, the slot running all the way to the edge of the stone.

The church has several grand monuments to members of the Vernon and Manners families and a cute little memorial to Sir Godfrey de Foljambe and his wife who have been observing proceedings from their balcony since the 14th century.

© Copyright Poor Frank Raw, 2016