The graveyard of St. Helen's parish church

The people of Stapleford have been burying their loved ones near to the church for hundreds of years. Their resting place would be marked only by a simple wooden cross or a bunch of flowers and the wind and the rain would soon remove all evidence of their passing. It was only the comparatively affluent who could afford to have a permanent marker on their grave, and it is their memorials which produce the country churchyards which we all associate with the typical English village. Stapleford would have been just the same, and old photographs show a churchyard full of gravestones and monuments, large and small. As time passed the families who cared for them also died and the monuments fell into decay. In February 1952 a faculty[1] was obtained to reposition all the gravestones around the edge of the churchyard. The map which supports the faculty states that there were 120 stones to be moved. Between 1966 and 1970 65 of these stones were placed alongside the path leading to the church from Church Street and it is these that we see today. The remainder of the stones were buried. The maintenance of the graveyard became the responsibility of the local authority in 1972.[2]

The gravestones which remain at Stapleford are mainly carved from slate although there are two old ones carved from sandstone and one modern one carved from granite.

The two old stones carved from sandstone are numbers 1 and 64. This stone probably came from the quarries near King’s Mill. The church is built of this same stone which, unfortunately, is not very durable, as can be seen from various parts of the church building. It is quite suitable for memorials inside the church but soon erodes when exposed to the weather. A good indication of the speed at which this happens can be found in an account of a visit to the church by the Thoroton Society in 1906 [3] when it was noted that a large portion of the tomb of Captain William Sleigh, who had died in 1842, only 64 years ago, had already shaled off, rendering part of the inscription illegible. This grave has now disappeared but for three of the four little sphinxes which guarded each corner of the edifice. One can be found on each side of the south porch and one is by the west door. The two old stones are very difficult to read but appear to date from 1722 and 1627. This susceptibility to weathering may account for the fact that there are no other sandstone headstones surviving. They may have been used in large numbers but have not lasted.

The largest group of stones is carved from slate, either the local Swithland slate from quarries in Charnwood Forest or slate from the quarries in North Wales. These slates are impermeable to water and withstand frost and rain without deterioration.

Swithland slate has been used from Roman times. It does not cleave easily and stone to be used for gravestones has to be sawn into slabs. Swithland slate can be distinguished from Welsh slate by checking if the back of the gravestone is rough. Swithland gravestones are only smooth on the front.

The main restriction on the use of stone is the cost of transport from the quarry, and it was only when the Erewash Canal and the Soar Navigation opened up in 1777 and 1778 that the use of Swithland slate became more widespread. In the Ipswich Journal of March 1778,[4] the availability of Swithland slate was advertised in anticipation of the opening of the Soar Navigation. Finished headstones from 22” broad to 5 feet ditto cost 11s.4d. per foot at the quarry face plus an extra 5s. per ton for transport to Loughborough. Evidence that Swithland slate was available closer to home in 1779 is provided by an advertisement in the Derby Mercury[5] offering quantities of slate to be sold at Mr Hallam’s wharf in Sandyacre in 2 ton lots.

There are ten headstones made of Swithland slate in the churchyard and these are numbered 2,4,5,6,24,50,51,53,54 and 62. They are dated between 1750 and 1800, with most of them dated after the opening of the two canals.

Swithland slate was also used for roofing and tiles from the Charnwood quarries are used on the east facing roof of the church porch. The tiles of the west facing roof are of Welsh slate. Swithland slate is very heavy and requires a solid framework to support it so perhaps the porch roof partially collapsed and was replaced by the lighter Welsh tiles.

The church and the churchyard at Stapleford were closed to new burials by order of the Queen on the 26^th October 1881, except for burials in vaults and walled graves and other graves which could be opened without the exposure of coffins.[6] Subsequently, the vicar was reported to the Home Secretary in November 1881 for interring a corpse contrary to the Order in Council.

An index to the names on the gravestones, a gallery of the inscriptions and a general view of the gravestones can be reached by clicking the appropriate button

Photographs of the gravestones can be seen by following either of the first two links.