Home | Why PoorFrankRaw? | Contact | Shop
St Bartholomew, Hognaston, Derbyshire
03/03/2015: Before you enter the churchyard at Hognaston you pass a line of 16th and 17th century stone cottages, farmhouses and barns. The nave of the church is 12th century. The farmhouse next to the church has a very good date stone over the door.
A dilapidated box tomb in the churchyard has the common memento mori legends on either end:
- CAVE TE NESCITIS HORAM (Beware, you know not the hour)
- MORS MIHI LUCRUM (Death is my reward)
There are not many Swithland slate headstones this far north, but a couple appear here. One very nicely carved example, to Elizabeth Marshal, includes the text, "This stone is erected by her disconsolate husband". It is easy to forget when we are looking at these stones as just historical artefacts, that every one represented the death of a family member, a funeral and the will to mark the event with a long-lasting memorial.
The tympanum over the church door is late 12th century and includes a lamb, cross, bishop and animal figures, including the Hognaston hog.
