Another graveyard in South Wales, February 2012

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Flexible

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The graveyard of the former St. John's Church.

There has been a place of worship at this site since the 16th century. The graveyard was officially closed and de-consecrated in the 1950’s, and the small church itself closed in the 60’s and was unused until the Boy Scouts took it over, and it is still in use today as a scouts’ hall. A lot of the graves are over 150 years old and most are very dilapidated and weather-worn, and sit at crazy angles or have fallen down flat. In one corner, there were at least 20 tiny gravestones grouped together which are so badly weathered that the epitaphs/inscriptions are unreadable. I can only guess; a) they have either sunk over the years, b) they belong to those whose families didn't have the means to afford an elaborate gravestone, or c) they were the graves of criminals?

Visited on two separate occasions, a few weeks apart.


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The tiny gravestones I mentioned earlier:
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Some were still readable
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Others simply had initials crudely carved into them.
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The small former church
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Thanks for having a look.
 
I could be wrong, but those small headstones look to me like they mark the graves of paupers who died in the workhouse. There are some nearly identical stones in the churchyard at Lampeter (Ceredigion) which have the same purpose.
 
I could be wrong, but those small headstones look to me like they mark the graves of paupers who died in the workhouse. There are some nearly identical stones in the churchyard at Lampeter (Ceredigion) which have the same purpose.

That's what I thought. Poverty was rife in these parts 150 - odd years ago.
 
I could be wrong, but those small headstones look to me like they mark the graves of paupers who died in the workhouse. There are some nearly identical stones in the churchyard at Lampeter (Ceredigion) which have the same purpose.

Could be right, the used to stack a few in one graves and the initials are proably the people names. Over the years the headstone sink in the ground which is why they look small.
 
Could be right, the used to stack a few in one graves and the initials are proably the people names. Over the years the headstone sink in the ground which is why they look small.

Yeah I thought that too, some of those gravestones have been there a very long time, and as I mentioned are very worn. I'm not sure when burials actually ceased, but even on one of the less-weathered stones the date inscribed was 1920.
 

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