THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY RE-USE OF GRAVESTONES AT CHERHILL 



29 



Fig. 1. Plan ofCherhill churchyard, as of 31st December 1882, redrawn from the plan byW.C. Plenderleath, 1887. The 

 recut headstones are numbered, and re-used headstones and footstones are shaded black. Lines joining headstones 

 indicate a set of head and footstones; concentric rectangles indicate chest tombs, crosses indicate cast iron crosses 



Plenderleath not only produced his 

 Memoranda, but also an index to the parochial 

 records in his care, listing all those mentioned 

 alphabetically under separate indices for each type 

 of register (WRO 1121/8). At the back of this 

 volume was a neatly produced and numbered 

 churchyard plan, and a transcription of all the 

 inscriptions. Memorials of various kinds are noted 

 on the plan - tombs, ledger slabs, head and foot 

 stones, and cast iron crosses. He makes no comment 

 on any decorative motifs with the inscriptions. 

 Plenderleath did explicitly indicate, however, the 

 five stones which he knew were re-used, in the 

 following annotation linked to the transcripts for 

 stones 30, 32, 41, 44, and 65: 



Mr. James Eatwell, Churchwarden, states of his 

 positive and personal remembrance, that the stones 

 marked on the plan 30 and 41 were given by Canon 

 Guthrie to have their inscriptions erased & other 

 inscriptions cut. Also that the stones marked 32 and 

 44 were similarly given by Mr. Farley. The stone 

 marked 65 he remembered to have been treated in 

 the same way during Canon Guthrie's incumbency, 

 but whether by that gentleman's permission or 

 unknown to him, can not say. Mr. Eatwell does not 

 remember what was the previous inscription on any 

 of these stones. (WRO 1121/8, 332) 



Plenderleath was thus definitely able to identify- 

 both visibly and through local knowledge five stones 

 which had been re-used, but it is unclear whether 



