St. Peter's Churchyard in Woolley

 

A detail of the grave slab of William Sykes (d.1742)

Except for my better appreciation of the physical characteristics of the Woolley Edge Rock, my visit to St. Peter’s church proved to be a bit of a disappointment – because I was unable to have a look at its interior, which the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture of Britain and Ireland records as containing a resited tympanum and a shaft.

 

A squeeze stile

Shrugging my shoulders, I then went to find the Grade II Listed cross base and the grave slabs and chest tombs in the graveyard, which I had first entered through a squeeze stile – a structure that I had never encountered before and had to talk with a dog walking resident, before using it. 

 

The cross base

 

On my travels I have seen very many of the cross bases like this, which Historic England (HE) describes as probably being mediaeval, but this square section stump embedded in a round base does not have any interesting features and I only took a single record photograph. 

 

The tombs of George Wildsmith and George Stringer

 

The pair of raised grave slabs are memorials to George Wildsmith (d.1724) and George Stringer (d.1723). Both have channelled borders and finely-carved semicircular-arched heads, with the Wildsmith memorial having winged-head spandrels and a carved heart motif, although the details are not easy to see because of the dense growth of lichens.

 

The tombs of Susanna and Anne Fretwell

Another pair of raised slabs commemorate the wives of Robert Fretwell, Susanna (d.1707) and Anne (d.1714). Again the detailing of these is obscured by lichens, but the slab to the right has a carved circular motif with floral border surmounted by trumpeting angel.

 

The chest tombs with pitched roofs

 

A pair of chest-tombs that caught the attention of Pevsner are described by him as “two shrine-like tomb-chests with pitched roofs. What date can they be?”, to which HE adds that they are of uncertain date and possibly pre-Norman.

 

A close up view of a chest tomb with a pitched roof

The criteria for listing table tombs and grave slabs does take into account the architectural style, sculpted designs and inscriptions; however, very often it seems that they are primarily listed if the person commemorated has local significance.

 

Various unlisted chest tombs

 

This would explain the listing of memorials that appear to my eye to have very little merit from a design point of view or other features that set them apart and, on the other hand, those that I think are noteworthy but are not listed – such as the grave slab of another George Stringer (d.1826). 

 

A detail of the grave slab of George Stringer

 

Continuing my quick wander around the churchyard, I kept my eyes open for more examples of fine calligraphy and letter cutting on C18 grave slabs, including that of George Prince of Woolley (d.1764), which has strange looking winged creatures that look more like modern depictions of supposed aliens than angels. 

 

A detail of the grave slab of George Prince

Another interesting C18 memorial is the footstone of the grave of Henry Broomhead (d.1733), a feature that I first recall seeing amongst the many Grade II Listed gravestones at All Saint’s churchyard in Darton and then at All Saint’s churchyard in Wingerworth. 

 

The footstone of Henry Broomhead

 

I briefly finished my very brief walk around St. Peter’s churchyard by taking a couple of record photographs of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Portland stone headstones of Private A. Green and Corporal C. Langfield, who both served in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.

 

The headstones of Private A. Green and Corporal C. Langfield