GRAVE POETRY: St Bartholomew's Church, Norton in the Moors, North Staffordshire

GRAVE POETRY

St Bartholomew’s Church, Norton-le-Moors,

North Staffordshire






by

 

Charles E S Fairey & Michael C Oakes

 

September 2024


 

GRAVE POETRY

 

Grave Poetry is a timeless tradition, with many examples up and down the country, but it became especially fashionable during the Victorian Era, when there was much emphasis on death and mourning, especially because Queen Victoria lost her young husband, Prince Albert, and was in a perpetual state of mourning for the rest of her life. There was much written at the time about the rules and forms of mourning.

 

The words we find in poems upon Georgian and Victorian grave stones, ask the viewer to contemplate their own mortality, and are especially religious, pointing viewers toward belief. It does often seem, as if the Dead are speaking to us, from ‘beyond the grave!’

 

Gravestones are meant to be immortal, and were believed to last forever, as a shrine for those who cared for the occupant(s), to mourn their loved ones, and place tokens of their love and affection at the immortal stone altar, and to contemplate their own death.

 

In this way the inscriptions are really immortal words, and if they include a message, a teaching, for those yet to meet their Creator, then that message should be heeded, and regarded as a guide to the living, of the journey to their deathly abode, for them to better their form of spiritual transition, from life to the doorway of death.

 

It does not especially matter for the viewer of such, if not a relative, to care for the life of the grave’s occupant(s), or those they have left behind, but that or those occupant(s), care or cares that you heed their words, from beyond the veil of death.

 

“The Truth We Must Seek

The Dead Really Do Speak”

 

These grave poems can be classed under the term ‘Memento Mori’.

 

Since the Medieval period, there has been a tradition of ‘Memento Mori’, which is a phrase which means ‘remember death’, and was a medieval theory to teach the living that they should reflect upon mortality, and consider the vanity of the earthly abode, and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits. There are many phrases, images and symbols related to death, which we now include under the ‘Memento Mori’ banner.

People who come to realise the importance of this act of dying through perfecting their character, and ultimately knowing themselves, and understanding the detachment from this life, and understanding the virtue of preparing themselves for the afterlife. As well as grasping the immortality of their own soul, and its salvation and thus its place within the spiritual landscape. Such as the three realms, which exist in many religions, both monotheistic and polytheistic, and other world belief systems, as the Earth, Heaven and Hell; view death more as a friend than a foe.

Such phrases as “Remember Man that you are dust and unto the dust you shall return”, “Remember that thou shalt die, and “Prepare to meet thy God”, remind us of the fragility of life, and that we must try and learn how we should best prepare ourselves for the hereafter, and the transition from a physical realm to a spiritual realm, before it is too late.

The most famous Memento Mori phrase or be it a rhyme is:-

 

“Ring a ring a roses,

A pocket full of posies

A-tish-oo, a-tish-oo

We all fall down”

 


*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

 

The Grave Poetry at St Bartholomew’s Church, Norton-le-Moors

 

 

Usually in churchyards up and down the country, a number of gravestones include an inscription with a ‘Memento Mori’ Poem. However, it is pretty rare to have as many as those found at St Bartholomew’s Church, at Norton-le-Moors in North Staffordshire, other than the large Victorian cemeteries in British cities. Here we find multiple Victorian and a few Georgian graves with a message from beyond the grave, to remind the viewer, to contemplate death.

 

In Cheshire, some churchyards have a few grave poems, but here at St Bartholomew’s’ in North Staffordshire we find around 90 plus examples visible today; although some are either obscured, or too worn to read, but many which have stood the test of time, to remind us that we will die.

 

We have selected 52 examples on graves from around the perimeter of the Church, there are quite a few more, but obscured where lichin grows over them, or they are too worn or damaged to be read.

 

If all the graves were uncovered in the churchyard, and were to be recorded, it is very likely there will be more examples of such poetical ‘Memento Mori’.

 

We recorded this selection of St Bartholomew’s’ Grave Poems, which you will find below, to interest the reader, who may not be able to visit Norton-le-Moors near Stoke on Trent, or who may not have time to search them out, for your interest, but also to remind us that death is something not to fear, and something which is paramount to prepare for in life.

 

Far too many folk fear death, and tend to shy away from it, although it is an inevitable part of life, so in that way, these poems may help those who are interested, either from a spiritual, poetical or even historical sense, to contemplate death, and prepare. That reason is why these deathly verses existed in the first place.

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

At St Bartholomew’s’ we have recorded 52 Grave Poems on Gravestones, and have numbered them and placed their locations upon a Google Satellite Image of the Churchyard, see below, so that anybody who reads this article, if they so wish to, are able to follow in our footsteps, and find each poetical inscription for themselves.

 

We have kept the monumental inscriptions of the graves, to just the transcription of the poems, and the name and date of the first buried, we have not transcribed the rest of the inscriptions, which record all the occupants of the graves, and their date of death, and/or burial, etc, because this article deals with the poetical message, and to include the rest of the information, would probably bore the reader. And essentially, the poems are the important message to those, who are not descendants of those in the graves.

 

It also takes some of the personal emphasis away from the emotions of the reader, and thereby keeps the heart concentrating upon their messages, and not the person at rest, so is much more personal to the reader’s heart generally, as well as acting as an individual teaching, so that each person who reads the verses, may reflect upon their meaning and message.


 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *


 

“The Dead Really Do Speak


And Their Wisdom We Must Seek”

 

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

  

Grave No. 1

 Ann Dean 1837:

 “What though friends’ may weep around

This shall heal their every wound,

Resteth she among the blest,

Where theire is everlasting rest.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 2

 Ellin Scragg 1763:

 “Mourn not Husband & Children dear

I’m not dead but sleeping here

My debt is paid my Grave you see

Stay but a while you’l follow me”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 3

 John & Mary Sherrett 1820:

 “Hannah Sherratt is my Name

England is my Nation

Heaven is my dwelling place

And Christ is my Salvation”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 4

 John Shaw 1840:

 “He” lived Respected,

And died Lamented,

By his Relations and friends.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 5

 John Vyse 1839:

 “A pale consumption, gave the fatal blow,

The stroke was certain, though the effect was slow,

With lingering pain, heaven saw me sure oppressed

Pitied my sighs, and kindly gave me rest.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 6

 William Turner 1854:

 “Blessed are the dead which die in

the Lord for they rest from their

Labours, and their works do

follow them.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 7

 Sarah Cope 1834:

 “Thou wast too good with us on earth to stay,

And we not good enough to go thy way,

Fare well most dear since Life is past,

We hope in Heaven to meet at last.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 8

 Trooper Walter Ronald Repton 1916:

 “ON THE EGYPTIAN DESERT HE IS LAID TO REST,

HIS HARD FIGHT WON, HIS DUTY NOBLY DONE,

HIS HEART WAS GOOD HIS SPIRIT BRAVE,

HE’S SLEEPING IN A HERD’S GRAVE.

GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS,

THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 9

 James Plant 1854:

 “Happy soul thy days are ended,

All thy mourning days below,

Go by angel guards attended,

To the throne of Jesus, go.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 10

 Annie Elizabeth Willshaw 1862:

 “Refrain your tears, pray shed no more

Because your child is gone before,

In love she liv’d in peace she died,

Her life was ask’d, but was denied.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 11

 Hannah Bishop 1929:

 “LIFE IS ETERNAL LOVE WILL REMAIN,

IN GOD’S OWN TIME, WE SHALL MEET AGAIN.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 12

 Mary Billinge 1852:

 “Their toils are past their work is done,

And they are fully blest;

They fought the fight the victory won,

And entered in to rest."

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 13

 George Fox 1882:

 “DAY AFTER DAY WE SAW THEM FADE

AND GENTLY SINK AWAY;

YET OFTEN OUR HEARTS WE PRAYED,

THAT THEY MIGHT LONGER STAY.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 14

 Eliza Jolley 1849:

 “We firmly trust, though here her dust

Entomb’d awhile remains,

Her spirit bless’d in peace and rest

The heaven of heavens contains.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 15

 Hannah … 18..:

 “WARNED BY MY FATE BE EVER IN YOUR GUARD

LEST SUDDEN DEATH SHOULD MEET YOU UNPREPARED

HEALTHY AND STRONG THOUGH NO DANGER NEAR

A STRANGER BOTH TO SICKNESS PAIN AND FEAR.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 16

 Elizabeth Scragg 1864:

 “UNFADING LET HER MEMORY BLOOM,

WHILE RESTS HER BODY IN THE TOMB,

NOR WILL THE LORD, THE LOVE DISTRUST,
THAT STREWS ITS GARLANDS O’ER HER DUST.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 17

 John Lovatt 1879:

 “DEATH LITTLE WARNING TO ME GAVE

BUT QUICKLEY CALLED ME TO THE GRAVE,

MAKE HASTE TO CHRIST MAKE NO DELAY

FOR NO ONE KNOWS THEIR DYING DAY.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 18

 Ann Heath 1888:

 “FAREWELL DEAR HUSBAND MY LIFE IS PAST

I LOVE YOU WELL WHILE LIFE DID LAST,

BUT NOW FOR ME NO SORROW TAKE,

BUT LOVE MY CHILDREN FOR MY SAKE.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 19

 Charles Cope 1879:

 “He rests from his labours, and his works do follow him.”

 

“And with the morn those angel faces smile,

Which we have loved since and lost awhile.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 20

… … …:

“Remember this account is true

The Same Event may Visit you

Then Still in Mind the warning bear

The youngest should for Death Prepare.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 21

William Wilshaw 1862:

“Within this Grave a Social friend is laid

Who hath the Common debt of nature paid,

When living honest generous and kind;

Now dead a loss to all friends left behind.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 22

Enoch Mountford 1863:

“Thy voice is now silent thy heart is now cold

Where thy smile and thy welcome oft met us of old

We miss thee we loved thee in silence unseen

We dwell on the memory of joys that have been.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 23

Sharon Handcock 1873:

“HE’S CROWNED AND ROBED AND BLESS’T

TO HIM THE PALM IS GIVEN;

ON EARTH HE PANTED FOR HIS REST,

HE’S FOUND IT NOW IN HEAVEN.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 24

John Unwin 1873:

“OUR PARENTS DEAR ARE GONE, AND WE ARE LEFT,

THE LOSS OF THEM TO MOURN,

BUT MAY WE HOPE TO MEET AGAIN,

WITH CHRIST BEFORE HIS THRONE.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 25

Sarah Boulton 1862:

“To Daughter dear this stone I raise

Whose tender care exceeds all praise

A record true of a Parent’s love,

To here who dwells with Christ above.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 26

Charles & Mary Ann Rigby 1874:

“SHE IS WATCHING AT THE PORTAL, SHE IS WAITING AT THE DOOR

WAITING ONLY FOR OUR COMING, FOR OUR DARLINGS GONE BEFORE.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 27

Peggy Prince 1860:

“A good and loving wife A parent

Dear, She hated fallsehoods mean

Disguise and loved, a thing that’s just”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 28

Samuel Abbott 1861:

“This world is vain and full of pain

With cares and troubles sore,

But they are blest who are at rest

With Christ for ever more.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 29

Charlotte Dean 1874:

“SHE’S CROWNED AND ROB’D AND BLEST,

TO HER THE PALM IS GIVEN,

ON EARTH SHE PANTED FOR HER REST,

SHE’S FOUND IT NOW IN HEAVEN”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 30

James Sargeant 1867:

“FAREWELL DEAR ONE WE TREAD THE SPOT,

WHERE THY REMAINS LIE SLEEPING IN THE DUST,

BELOVED IN LIFE NOR YET IN DEATH FORGOT,

AND WE MEET AGAIN I DO HUMBLY TRUST.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 31

Samuel Sargeant 1849:

“Death was no terror, or surprise to

him, for his Lamp was trimmed,

and his Light burning.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 32

Samuel Unwin 1828:

“AN ANGEL TOOK MY FLOWERS AWAY,

THEN WHY SHOULD I REPINE,

THAT JESUS IN HIS BOSOM WEARS,

THE FLOWERS THAT ONCE WERE MINE.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 33

James Bullock 1854:

“Afflicted by our loss, we lay thee here

In silent sorrow: e’en thy dust is dear;

For never wife shall weep nor child bend,

O’er kinder parent or more faithful friend.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 34

Daniel Hall 1889:

“OUR BROTHER THE HAVEN HATH GAIN’D OUT-FLYING

THE TEMPEST AND WIND,

HIS REST HE HATH SOONER OBTAIN’D AND LEFT

HIS COMPANIONS BEHIND”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 35

Aaron Sargeant 1875:

“DANGERS STAND THICK THROUGH ALL THE GROUND

TO PUSH US TO THE TOMB

AND FIERCE DISEASES WAIT AROUND

TO HURRY MORTALS HOME.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 36

Kate Goodwin 1856:

“Kind Angels guard her Sleeping dust,

Till Jesus comes to call the just;

Then may she awake with sweet surprise,

And in her Saviours Image rise.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 37

Thomas Cope 1835:

“Wife most dear pray be content,

Children for me do not lament;

For death must put lovers most kind,

And leave the dearest friends behind.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *


Grave No. 38

Joseph Snape 1788:

“In humble voice peruse these warning stones

Ne’ermore with thoughtless step on holy ground;

But heaven Christians sigh o’er mould’ring Bones

And hope departed souls have mercy found,

God’s Sabbaths keep his Church in rev’rence hold,

By them admission? Seek in Jesus’ Fold.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 39

John Scragg 1841:

“In friendship steady in his dealings just

His only study was to discharge his trust;

He lived respected and lamented died,

Punctuality was his only pride.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 40

George Tomkinson 1914:

“I CAME TO JESUS AS I WAS

WEARY AND WORN AND SAD;

I FOUND IN HIM A RESTING PLACE:

AND HE HAS MADE ME GLAD.:”

“”THY WILL BE DONE””

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 41

Alice Adams 1817:

“Tis not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 42

Hannah Bostock 1831:

“In love I liv’d in peace I did I craved life but god deny’d

My blooming youth he would deface,

And send me to a better place

Then dear friends pay weep no more

I am not lost but gon before.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 43 

Hugh Sherrat 1806:

“Here lies a honest inaffective friend,

Peaceable in her Life and happy in her end,

Harmless in her words and in her dealings just,

Firm to her friend and upright in her trust.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 44

William Steele 1863:

“A LIGHT FROM OUR HOUSEHOLD IS GONE,

A VOICE WE LOVED IS STILLED,

A PLACE IS VACANT AT OUR HEARTH,

WHICH NE’ER CAN BE REFILLED.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 45

Francis Mare 1783:

“Forbear my Friends to weep

Since Death hath lost its sting

All those in Christ doth sleep

Our God will with him bring.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 46

Nathan Jackson 1836:

“For as in Adam all die even so in Christ

Shall all be made alive.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 47

John Stansfield 1816:

“Time and

death shall

be no more”

 

"Time was I stood as thou dost now to view the dead as

Thou dost me in time thou’l lie as low as I and others

Stand and look on thee"

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 48

Richard & Ellen Leak 1779:

“Short was our time on Earth Longer is our rest

Prepare and Live that ye may Die to Live Again

And Reign with Christ Above the Skie.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 49

Susannah Mollington? 1800:

“As I am now so you must be,

Prepare in time to follow me.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 50

George Mountford 1799:

“Afflictions sore Long time on Earth I bore

And Physicians proved in vain,

Till God pleas’d and Death did Ease me

of my pain.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 51

Charlotte Bould 1865:

“THEIR TOILS ARE PAST THEIR WORK IS DONE,

AND THEY ARE FULLY BLEST;

THEY FOUGHT THE FIGHT THE VICTORY WON,

AND ENTERED INTO REST;”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

Grave No. 52

Joseph Mould 1887:

“A FRIEND SO TRUE THERE WERE BUT FEW

AND DIFFICULT TO FIND

A MAN MORE JUST AND TRUE TO TRUST

THERE IS NOT LEFT BEHIND.”

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *



An Example of St Bartholomew’s Church’s Grave Poetry

(Grave No. 50: George Mountford 1799)

 

“Afflictions sore Long time on Earth I bore

And Physicians proved in vain,

Till God pleas’d and Death did Ease me

of my pain.”



Locations of Selected Grave Poetry at

St Bartholomew’s Church, Norton-le-Moors,

North Staffordshire

 


 

 

This Google Maps Satellite Imagery has been reproduced under their fair usage policy.

“Imagery ©2024 Airbus, Maxar Technologies, Map data ©2024

(https://www.google.co.uk/maps/)”  

 


Recommended Links:

 

We recommend these two websites about St Bartholomew’s Church in Norton-le-Moors, North Staffordshire:-


 

St Bartholomew’s Church Norton-le-Moors Website @

https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/4416/  

 

Norton-le-Moors, North Staffordshire Wikipedia Entry @

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_le_Moors  

 

 

We also recommend this article about Freemason gravestones, at Stoke Minster, as well as here, at Norton-le-Moors, Charles wrote:-


 

The Devil’s Grave, A Masonic Epitaph, Charles E. S. Fairey, 2015 (Revised 2022) @

https://www.mysticmasque.com/history-mystery/the-devils-grave-a-masonic-epitaph

 

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 


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