War Graves in Staveley and Brimington

 

The emblem of the Granadier Guards regiment

Towards the end of my recce for a geology field trip on the High Peak Trail, I encountered a memorial in the form of a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstone, which records the transport of more than 120,000 headstones along the Cromford and High Peak Railway, on the way to various cemeteries, after the Great War. 

 

A memorial on the High Peak Trail

The Hopton Wood limestone used for these was quarried from the Lower Carboniferous Bee Low Limestone Formation in several places in the vicinity, as well described by Ian Thomas – the former Director of the National Stone Centre – in England’s Heritage in Stone, the proceedings of a conference organised by the English Stone Forum. 

 

Quarries in the Bee Low Limestone Formation

When planning my trip to Staveley and Brimington, to explore their historic architecture and building stones and to provide photographs for the British Listed Buildings website, I had also researched the CWGC headstones at their cemeteries – to continue with a very informal project to photograph the regimental crests. 

 

A plan of Staveley Cemetery

Having found good layout plans of the cemeteries produced by Chesterfield Borough Council, it didn’t take me long to find the 23 headstones in Staveley Cemetery. Of these, I only wanted to especially photograph the headstone of Private W.G. Whitall of the Welsh Regiment, whose regimental crest I had not seen before, so I just took very quick snaps of the rest of them without taking much notice of the stone from which they are made. 

 

The headstone of Private W.G. Whitall

With many of the inscriptions facing north and often quite low levels of light, I just assumed that they were further examples of Jurassic Portland stone, which I had previously encountered in many churchyards and cemeteries in South Yorkshire. 

 

The crest on the headstone of Private W.G. Whitall

It is only while writing this Language of Stone Blog post that I looked at my photos more closely and could see that the texture was quite different. Portland stone is an oolite containing a small proportion of oyster shells, whereas Hopton Wood limestone has a much coarser texture, with fragments of crinoids, corals and brachiopods cemented with crystalline calcite. 

 

The crest on the headstone of Private F. Hibbert

 

Although I would want to have another close look at the headstones in situ again to confirm my observations, it seems that Hopton Wood limestone has been used for the WWI casualties - for Private F. Hibbert of the Leicestershire Regiment for example - but the WWII headstones have been made from Portland stone. 

 

A plan of Brimington Cemetery

At Brimington Cemetery, there were 6 more regimental crests on the CWGC headstones to find, which was also made easy by another good layout plan to refer to, with the first being Lance Corporal W.W. Cropper of the Grenadier Guards, where the emblem depicts a flaming grenade. 

 

The headstone of Lance Corporal W.W. Cropper

 

This headstone is made from Hopton Wood limestone, as I presume is also used for that of Lance Corporal J. Baumber of the Lincolnshire Regiment, whose crest I remember during a brief visit to Sobraon Barracks when living in Lincoln. 

 

The crest on the headstone of Lance Corporal J. Baumber

This is evidently a replacement for the original headstone, with the fine lines produced by a CNC milling machine quite visible in the area around the crest. Although this method of production is much cheaper than traditional cutting by hand, I think that the latter is much more aesthetically pleasing – as seen in the headstone of Private H.F. Stott. 

 

The crest on the headstone of Private H.F. Stott

 

I have seen polished light and dark varieties of Hopton Wood limestone in the interiors of Sheffield Town Hall and Sheffield City Hall, where the fossil fragments are easy to discern and, when the stone is weathered, these tend to be more resistant than the cement. 

 

The crest on the headstone of Private C. E. Clayton

 

This differential weathering can be seen quite clearly in the headstone of Private C.E. Clayton of the Gloucestershire Regiment, which like the Lincolnshire Regiment has a depiction of a Sphinx lying on a pedestal inscribed with 'Egypt’. 

 

The headstone of Private R.H. Elliott

 

After finding the headstone of Private R.H. Elliott of the Labour Corps, whose regimental crest I had not encountered before but inexplicably failed to photograph in detail, I came across three headstones of casualties of WWII, where the headstones are made of Portland stone and not Hopton Wood limestone. 

 

The crest on the headstone of Private J. Rowe

 

The headstone of Private. J. Rowe of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), a casualty of WWI, is in Hopton Wood limestone, as is that of Private G.H. Godfrey of the Royal Veterinary Corps - both of which I had not previously encountered.  

The crest on the headstone of Private G.H. Godfrey