Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 95 (2002), pp. 27-33 



The Nineteenth-Century Re-use of Gravestones 

 at Cherhill 



by Harold Mytum 



Documentary and physical evidence indicates that at least five headstones at Cherhill were re-used, involving 

 the removal of their original inscriptions and decoration. This was undertaken with the tacit agreement of 

 the clergy. This type of memorial re-use has not been documented elsewhere, but has implications both for 

 the dating of memorial forms on the basis of inscriptions and for understanding the significance given to 

 memorials and their texts in rural churchyards during the 19th century. 



INTRODUCTION 



Archaeologists have become increasingly involved 

 with the study of 19th-century death, whether 

 through the study of crypts and vaults (Litten 1999; 

 Reeve and Adams 1993), burials (Boore 1986; Cox 

 and Stock 1995; Stock 1998), or memorials 

 (Mytum 1994, 1 999; Rahtz and Watts 1983;Tarlow 

 1999). Only the last of these can be undertaken on 

 a wide scale, and without intervention which is both 

 costly and involves considerable ethical concerns 

 (Cox 1998). The guidance on archaeological 

 graveyard recording for long gave little consideration 

 to the matter of gravestone dating, with the 

 inference that this is easily ascertained from the 

 memorials (Jones 1976, 1979, 1984). Extensive 

 studies of memorials have now indicated that this 

 assumption needs to be treated with care (Mytum 

 forthcoming), and new guidance gives greater 

 attention to this matter (Mytum 2000). A 

 combination of physical and documentary evidence 

 at Cherhill provides an important insight into the 

 state of a 1 9th-century graveyard and the complex 

 use lives of gravestones. It is also a cautionary tale 

 of which graveyard recorders should be aware, and 

 reveals contrasting attitudes to memorials held by 

 successive Wiltshire clerics. 



Memorials in burial grounds can be defined in 

 two ways: by their physical form and by their textual 



content. Genealogists have carried out extensive 

 recording programmes to recover names and dates 

 of those commemorated, and at times have recorded 

 the whole inscriptions and the ways they are laid 

 out on the stones (White 1977; Rayment 1981). 

 Archaeologists have concentrated on recording and 

 considering the form and decoration, and also the 

 formal characteristics of the inscription such as 

 methods of inscription and style of lettering (Jones 

 1976; Mytum 2000). Within the text there is much 

 of importance which can enhance an archaeological 

 understanding. Not only names and dates, but also 

 places, occupations, and relationships occur, though 

 the popularity of these varies over time and from 

 region to region. 



Some archaeological surveys have recorded a 

 very great deal of information regarding the 

 memorials, but often there has been insufficient 

 attention given to the sequence of events involved 

 in inscribing the stone. The issue was raised by 

 Sebastian Rahtz in the study of the Protestant 

 Cemetery in Rome (Rahtz 1987, 165), but not 

 elaborated. In this regard, the re-use of memorials 

 requires attention, and the evidence from Cherhill 

 is of particular importance. 



The date of death of one or more individuals is 

 normally provided within memorial inscriptions. 

 These death dates are traditionally used by 

 archaeologists and art historians to provide some 



Department of Archaeology, University of York, The King's Manor, York YO 1 7EP 



