31 Days of Graves Day 31 Skull

I have scoured our local cemeteries and found only two headstones bearing a skull – and I had to take a really close look at one of them, as it isn’t particularly obvious! The use of the skull icon on a gravestone was really just a reminder of how short life was (and still is) and presents the idea of living life wisely.

What you see in the gravestone here is two upright stones, back to back. Both are made from Swithland slate, although not from the same quarries, as the colours are quite different. The headstone in question is a little shorter than its companion. The transcription reads:

Beneath

lie the remains of

Tho. Farmer

Who departed this life

on the 28 th of Dec 1794

aged 70 years

The stone is divided into two, with the expectation perhaps that Thomas’s wife would be remembered on the right-hand side: perhaps because there were two wives, this is why they appear at the bottom of the stone.

ALSO near this place were interred the Bodies of

Clare Farmer his first                                           Jan 25 th 1778 aged 5?

                                        wife who died

And Elizb his second                                            Aug 20 th 1791 aged 50

The skull is incised at the top of the stone, in the middle, and is accompanied by the word ‘Mortality’. Looking very carefully, a couple of crossed bones can also be seen. This is more obvious when looking at a drawing probably done by a member of the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society.

 

The second skull was found very low down, at the bottom of the gravestone, such that I very nearly missed it altogether. It commemorates Sarah, the wife of William Hoope, as well as William himself. The inscription is a stark reminder of how difficult past times were for people, and how much things have changed. The inscription reads:

In

remembrance of

Sarah wife of

William Hooper (draper)

who died in child-bed on the

24th July 1805

aged 37 years

 

Also

William Hooper

who died 5th November

1823

aged 65 years

Sadly, I have no idea if the baby survived, so have not been able to follow the fortunes of the family.

And so the 31 Days of Graves challenge comes to an end! Thank you for staying with me over the past month!

See you again soon. 

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

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The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2026). 31 Days of Graves Day 31 Skull. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2026/10/31-days-of-graves-day-31-skull.html  [Accessed 31 October 2026]

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31 Days of Graves Day 30 Broken

The memorial above, and the first three memorials below can be found in the old Loughborough cemetery on Leicester Road. The first two were photographed in 2019/2020, and 2014/2026, the third in 2026.

The following detail of Hilda Dormer is extracted from my ‘A-Z of Loughborough’.

Hilda Dormer was born to Harry and Mary of Moor Lane in 1895. Hilda followed in her father’s footsteps, opening a butcher’s shop in Nottingham during the First World War. By 1919 she had opened her Loughborough shop at No.13 High Street. In 1936 she was elected to the Loughborough Town Council as the conservative councillor for the Beaumont Ward and served on many committees.

As an inhabitant of Hathern, Hilda supported many village events. In 1943 she was elected as president of the Leicestershire and Rutland Meat Traders’ Council, the first woman in the country to hold such a position. In 1947 Hilda succeeded Wilfred Banner as Mayor of Loughborough, and was the first woman in the county to hold such a position. Her term of office was busy with social and fundraising events. In April 1948 she bowled the first wood of the season on Queen’s Park green, in May she opened a sale of work in the Red Cross Room on Southfield Road, and handed out tins of food donated by the Dominions, to 2000 old people at the Town Hall.

In July 1948, alongside mayors from many Midland’s towns, she attended the celebration of Alderman Mrs Ethel Wainwright, OBE, deputy mayor of Mansfield, being awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Mansfield. In late September, Hilda fell ill and was admitted to Loughborough hospital, where she underwent an operation, but died on 19th October 1948. Hilda was only the second person to die in office, and she was succeeded by her Deputy Mayor, Councillor Lester, whose wedding anniversary she had so recently toasted.

George Hodson came to the Loughborough area in mid-1864, from his hometown of Willenhall. He came to work with Henry Humphreys, the land steward of the Beaumanor Estate, to help survey, and map the estate. In 1866, at the age of 23, George took up the position of surveyor and sanitary inspector for the Loughborough Local Board.

In 1870, George was joined by his brother James Francis, and in 1875, architect John Price was articled to George Hodson, the town surveyor, whose firm was based in Baxter Gate. The firm was called Hodson, Price, Hodson. In 1886, John Price left Loughborough to take up the position of chief inspector of the Sanitary Department in Cairo. In 1890, the Hodsons were described as engineers, rather than architects, and they were indeed concerning themselves with drainage, electric lighting using steam power, and sewerage works.

George and Francis created the Hathern Station Brick and Terra Cotta Company in 1874, and this later became Hathernware in 1938. Successive generations of the Hodson family continued to run Hathernware until the company merged with Shaw, and was later taken over by the Ibstock Brick Company. The company is now owned by Michelmersh Brick Holdings.

George died 25th April 1907, and the broken gravestones are a memorial to him, his wife, Lucy, who died on 2nd August 1924, and their daughter, Edith Alice who died 17th January 1912, aged 32.   

 

William Foulds was born on 31st May 1826, and baptised at All Saints on 26th June 1837. His parents were Joseph and Mary. In 1850, William married, Jane Monk who had been born a year earlier than him, and who had previously been married to John Monk, with whom she had a child, Emma.

In 1851, William and his family were living on Holborn Hill (where Collinson Court, opposite Sainsbury is now) where he was a brewer. By 1861, William was working as a brewer, living on Pinfold Street with his wife, Jane, but by 1863 he was a beerhouse keeper on Hume Street, which would have been, or certainly later become, the Cherry Tree Inn, which was how it was recorded in the 1871 census return.   

William continued to be the licensed victualler at the Cherry Tree on Hume Street until his death on 17th May 1886. He was succeeded at the Cherry Tree by numerous people, including Henry Roe (at least between 1891-2); Willam Moore (at least from 1898-1901); Joseph Wassall (at least from 1908 onwards); Walter Jervis (at least from 1911-1928), and Arnold J. Squire (at least from 1939 onwards).

This little slate stone in the churchyard of All Saints with Holy Trinity, is little because it’s broken. It’s really difficult to work out who it is a memorial for, other than that she was the wife of Joseph Clarke, who was perhaps an apothecary. One might also surmise that she was, perhaps, buried with two of her children.

The final stone, which is also in All Saints with Holy Trinity churchyard, has split vertically in two places. This makes the inscription difficult, but not impossible to read.

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2026). 31 Days of Graves Day 30 Broken. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2026/10/31-days-of-graves-day-30-broken.html  [Accessed 30 October 2026]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

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By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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Lynne

31 Days of Graves Day 29 Grand

Of course, it depends on your definition of ‘grand’ but I think there are several memorials worthy of being named as such, both in the churchyard of All Saints with Holy Trinity and in the old cemetery on Leicester Road. I think there may be others in different parts of the Leicester Road cemetery, but I’ve yet to re-visit that one.

So, in the parish church is a rather grand tomb made from brick, and adorned with slate headstones. There were headstones on the top of the too, but I couldn’t photograph those as I didn’t have a stepladder with me.

These memorials are to members of the Hunt family, of which John Hunt was a surgeon in Loughborough.

Over in the Leicester Road cemetery are a couple more I’d like to share with you. Firstly, the beautiful structure dedicated to Richard Warner Hole, about whom I have written a little before, in connection with Shelthorpe House. This memorial is sited next to the one dedicated to Catharine Anne Brown, which was probably intentional as her daughter was Amelia, who was the widow of Richard Warner Hole, and who we met on Day 1 of this challenge.

Finally, the one memorial that cannot fail to be missed, in the old part of the Leicester Road cemetery – the green person standing atop a grey marble plinth! William Henry Paltridge, a Doctor of Music, and owner of a music shop on Church Gate.[1] Also in memory of his wife, Emma. I took the photographs from what seemed to be the best vantage points, so not many close ups, so not all the inscription is visible here, and I haven’t done much research into the family. Hopefully, the photos will suffice.

Thank you for following me on this blog challenge!

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Notes

[1] I now think that the shop was further down Church Gate than I suggested in my earlier post about Paltridge's, so maybe where AA Stationers is now, but in a building that pre-dates that particular one, though, of course, I can never be sure.

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2026). 31 Days of Graves Day 29 Grand. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2026/10/31-days-of-graves-day-29-grand.html [Accessed 29 October 2026]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

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By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

31 Days of Graves Day 28 1900-1999

Whilst there are a number of memorials in the old cemetery on Leicester Road that date from during the twentieth century, the majority can be found in the new cemetery on Leicester Road. Looking at some of these now, it’s interesting to note how they differ from earlier memorial stones.

By the time the new part of the cemetery was opened in 1947, the use of Swithland slate for headstones had long since finished. The heyday was probably around the mid-1850s, but there followed a rapid decline in usage, and the last quarry closed in 1887. So, rather than a profusion of Swithland slate, the new part of the cemetery is more likely to include headstones of granite, and limestone (Portland stone and York stone). Further into the latter part of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, black marble seems to dominate.

Other differences seem to be that the length of the grave is often covered in green stone. Headstones from the 1930s-1960s are often rectangular, rather than church window shaped which was popular in earlier times. Some areas of the newer cemetery were still laid out in regimented rows, too.

 

It proved difficult to track down twentieth-century headstones, as in comparison to some of the twenty-first century ones, they looked rather small, although were mostly the same dimensions as the ones in the older part of the cemetery. I did, however, photograph one that couldn’t have been much more than 2 foot high (where was my tape measure when I needed it?!).

Whilst in the old part of the cemetery, one side was reserved for Anglicans, the other for non-conformists, I'm not sure if this is the case in the newer part of the cemetery. There are, however, areas that seem to be distinctly reserved for Italian people, Polish people, Muslims, and Jews - at least, these were the ones I spotted, but I have no doubt there are many more special areas.

 

I have not researched any of the people who are memorialised on the headstones I photographed, so here are the pictures

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2026). 31 Days of Graves Day 28 1900-1999. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2026/10/31-days-of-graves-day-28-1900-1999.html [Accessed 28 October 2026]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

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You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

31 Days of Graves Day 27 Military

The sword on this memorial stone is a cavalry sabre, and is accompanied by a rifle, and a pistol. The headstone, which is in the churchyard of All Saints with Holy Trinity, remembers Robert Hayes, son of Daniel Hayes and Mary (née Cumberland) of Loughborough Parks, who was born in 1788, and died in 1807. In the early 19th century, imagery on memorial stones became rather more directly related to the earthly life of the person, rather than the use of generic images. These particular images suggest that Robert was an officer, or a high-ranking military member, and the year of his death might suggest he was taking part in the Napoleonic Wars, perhaps the Copenhagen Expedition. There is more information about this conflict on the National Army Museum webpages. However, I am not a military historian, so please don't take my word for it.

 

The following memorials in the old cemetery on Leicester Road, we will remember them, not in words but in silence and photographs. There is more information available, and this is accessed via the person's name.

 

166514, Driver, John William Smith, Royal Field Artillery, 21st September 1919, age 40.

45190 Serjeant Percy Onions, Machine Gun Corps. (Inf) 15th November 1918 age 26

74166 Private James Pearson Royal Defence Corps and Cheshire Regiment 10th November 1918 age 28

 

241289 Sergeant Thomas Marston Military Medal and Two Bars The Leicestershire Regiment 10 June 1922

There is more information about Thomas Marston on the Carillon website; on the BBC news pages, and on the Royal Leicester Regiment webpages. 

The memorial to POW Leonhard Rademacher can be found amongst other POWs in the new part of the Leicester Road cemetery which was opened in 1947.

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2026). 31 Days of Graves Day 27 Military. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2026/10/31-days-of-graves-day-27-military.html  [Accessed 27 October 2026]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

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NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne