17th-century gravestone, St Mary's, Chilton Foliat
Introduction
The photograph on this page of 17th-century gravestone, St Mary's, Chilton Foliat by Stefan Czapski as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
17th-century gravestone, St Mary's, Chilton Foliat
Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 17 Jul 2017
While many 18th-century grvestones survive in English churchyards, legible stones from before 1700 are something of a rarity. This could be the first that I've recorded for Geograph, though I know of one at Limpsfield which must be a 'probable': http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2865826 In both cases decoration takes the form of foliage, and we are spared the jawless death's-heads that became the custom in the century that followed: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5039701 We weren't able to make out all the wording on this Wiltshire stone, but it would seem to be:: HERE LYETH THE BODY OF WILLIAM BROOCKMAN WHICH DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE . . . DAY OF AVGVST AGED 27 ANNO DOMINI 1678
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Image Location
Latitude
51.432879
Longitude
-1.542506