Tomb restoration reveals new burials
With the help of National Heritage Fund Slimbridge Parish Council have managed the restoration of the 24 listed monuments, the railings and the gate by the road. The tombs can now be seen almost as new. Here are the before and after photos for Grave O/01 (Archard) which is now secure for another couple of centuries.
It is sometimes thought that the bodies were in the tomb above ground, but in fact the tomb is just for show/effect with the bodies in the ground as with the other forms of memorials in the Graveyard. This can be seen in Archard’s tomb (above) where the side had fallen out.
The refurbishment of Tomb N/12 has revealed an interesting twist as shown in the following photos taken during the refurbishment.
The top and sides were removed revealing a base slab.
But when the slab was cleaned it had an inscription.
Here Lieth the Body
of John Horrod Who
was Buried The 20
of March 1664
Here Lieth the Body of Edward
Harrod ? ? ? ?
Of ? ? ? ?
Here Lieth te Body of
Edith Horrod Te Wife of
John Horrod Who Was
Buried te 22 of ?? 1661
John Edward’s father was Edward Horrod who died in 1611, the same year as John’s wife Edith, we assume the Edward was John’s father. You might expect the inscriptions to be in chronological order, but it could be John’s father and wife were buried in this location but this tombstone was only laid when John was buried. When the tomb was built, the original inscription was covered and don’t seem to have been repeated on the tomb itself. The names recorded on tomb N/12 are:
There is no reference to Horrod, but the nearby tomb N/10 includes 5 Horwoods, probably the name Horrod has morphed into Horwood. There are a number of Horrods in the Burial Records with no known Burial Location.
A similar tombstone has been found under tomb O/09 (Lawrence). This requires further investigation!
