Gravestones of Shropshire

This book is a product of the authors' survey of graveyards and cemeteries that began in 2008. The survey began out of an interest in looking for the gravestones of centenarians, but soon expanded to include other gravestones that were of interest for different reasons. All these gravestones were photographed, together with a general view of the church or cemetery and the results are available on a website www.grave-mistakes.info. The authors have not been inside all the churches visited, so this book concentrates on memorials outside the churches. The history of most churches is well documented. Many of them offer publications for sale for a small sum that describe the structure of the building, the font, the stained glass, the local benefactors, the clerical incumbents, and other interior features of interest. This history is often available online, and there are also continuing projects to make parish registers available online. However almost none offer detailed guides to the inscriptions on the gravestones in their churchyards. Occasionally a study has been made of a single churchyard by an enthusiastic local person, but no-one seems to have made studies of all the burial sites of larger areas. The development of the digital camera has now made projects such as this survey possible. The survey made by the authors began when they lived in Northamptonshire and continues now that they live in Shropshire. The majority of sites they have visited have been local to their homes, but they also visit sites whenever they are in other parts of the country. Every church in Shropshire has been visited, a process which took over three years. They note that very many old gravestones are no longer legible, so their inscriptions are lost for ever. This process continues, and combined with clearance of graveyards for reasons such as easier grass-cutting or safety, is leading to the permanent loss of this precious resource for genealogy and social history. The authors encourage readers to explore their local graveyards and make their discoveries available to everyone on the internet.