31 Days of Graves Day 12 Mistake

Spotting a mistake on an engraved headstone must be one of the most difficult things to do, as unless it’s an obvious spelling mistake, it might not be apparent that it’s a mistake. And, of course, spelling changes over time, so what might have been ‘correct’ last century, might not be today.

I have no personal connection with any of the memorials I have been looking at for this challenge, so I am not going to be aware if there is perhaps a mistake with birth or death dates, unless I delve into the history of the person commemorated, which I haven't always got time to do.

So, I decided to take a different approach …

Firstly, here’s an example of how spelling has changed over the years.

Here

lies the body of

Mary the Wife of

Joseph Brookes

of the Forrest Lane

She departed this Life

The 8th day of March

1746-7 Aged 32 Years.

Forrest Lane was most definitely once known as this, but it is now familiar to us as Forest Road. What I can’t quite explain is the hyphen in the year of Mary’s death – 1746-7. At first glance, one would think it’s to do with the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, but that happened in 1752 (although the legislation to make the change was passed in 1750). It is more common, I believe, to use a forward slash to indicate a date falling around the time of the change, or a fraction, usually 1/2, a system that is referred to as double dating. Perhaps this memorial stone to Mary Brookes wasn’t made at the time of her death, but perhaps later, maybe when her husband, Joseph, died? Hmmmm, a bit of a puzzle.

Of course, it might be possible to prevent mistakes being made at the point at which the stone is being engraved. When the headstones were installed, they were standing upright, with a portion being buried in the soil, deep enough to anchor the structure. It was therefore ideal for the stonemason, or more likely the apprentice, to practice on the area which would be buried. Of course, since the re-arrangement of the headstones at the church of All Saints with Holy Trinity, some of these stones are now lying flat, and those practice engravings can now be seen. Here’s a couple of examples: in the first, the engraver seems to have practised the whole of the alphabet, while in the second example, only selected letters have been tried out.

 

Thank you for reading the blog! I have no doubt that I have made some spelling errors, or more likely missed out some words, trying to type too quickly!   

Pop back tomorrow for more grave stories! 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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