Thursday 4 December

Today, Thursday 4 December I called in at the parish office to see Sue who works there as the treasurer of the church. I had seen on the church website the news that during the winter months the graveyard was being mapped out and the photographs and information on the gravestones being sent to Yorkshire Indexers. Rather pleased in one way that someone else was working in the graveyard and mapping it out and sent her an e-mail to see if I could share my information and join forces with this person working in the graveyard. On the other hand I was also a bit miffed that no one had bothered to contact me as I had gone about my survey gaining permission from the PCC and the church knew my contact details.

This is the church website and the article about the graveyard map. http://www.rothwellholytrinitychurch.co.uk/direction.htm 

http://www.rothwellholytrinitychurch.co.uk/grave.htm

Sadly Sue told me that she did not know anything about this project and suggested it really all about my efforts. Whilst in the office I spoke to a member of the church about the graveyard at the front of the church which is very tidy with grass but no gravestones apart from the odd grave chamber. I wondered if the stones had been moved from this part of the graveyard at one time, and the old graveyard grassed over. We agreed that to do this a faculty-permission would have been granted to do so, and wondered where there might be record about it and where the gravestones that had been removed were now. They certainly weren’t in the graveyard itself. I did contact the Diocese office to be told that any records would be held locally or in the West Yorkshire Archives at Morley. Anyway after lunch I returned to the graveyard and using my revised plan tried to work out the grave plot plans again. 

Brown	18aa	Marshall	18bb	Thompson	18cc	Goddard	18dd	Connell	18ee	No stone
No stone	19aa	No stone	19bb	No stone	19cc	No stone	19dd	No stone	19ee	No stone
Edinbro	20aa	No stone	20bb	No stone	20cc	No stone	20dd	No stone	20ee	No stone
Tree	21aa	No stone	21bb	No stone	21cc	No stone	21dd	No stone	21ee	No stone
No stone	22aa	No stone	22bb	No stone	22cc	No stone	22dd	No stone	22ee	No stone
No stone	23aa	Sykes	23bb	Mirfin	23cc	No stone	23dd	No stone	23ee	No stone
No stone	24aa	No stone	24bb	No stone	24cc	Ellis	24dd	No stone	24ee	Whitehead
No stone	25aa	No stone	25bb	No stone	25cc	No stone	25dd	No stone	25ee	Knee
No stone	26aa	No stone	26bb	No stone	26cc	No stone	26dd	No stone	26ee	No stone
No stone	27aa	No stone	27bb	No stone	27cc	No stone	27dd	No stone	27ee	Snowden
No stone	28aa	Wilcock	28bb	No stone	28cc	No stone	28dd	No stone	28ee	No stone
No stone	29aa	No stone	29bb	No stone	29cc	No stone	29dd	No stone	29ee	No stone

You can see from the above section of the spreadsheet that there are more grave plots without stones than with them.

A few of the plots had to be changed as they didn’t work out, I found at least a couple of new stones I hadn’t seen before. I did see what appears to be an ivy tree, which was very thickly spread and I am sure hides yet another stone.

I did take a couple of photographs. I think it says Elizabeth wife of William Wilcock who departed this life December 9^th 1861 aged 61 years. There is another name underneath the first inscription but as yet I can’t read it. I did look at Ancestry, West Yorkshire Burials for Rothwell which confirms the above information.

This is often the state that I find the stones-this one will have to be cleaned off before I will be able to read it properly. You can see how thick is the ivy stem at the foot of the stone.

In 2010 I started this project in the north west of the church, adjacent to a footpath that leads out onto Church St. I have so far completed all the stones in this section, then all the stones to the north of the church which I call North Section, now isn't that strange? It was such a big section that I had to divide it into 3 sections. There is a section close to the church back door which I have named Church Section. I am now working on Paddock, just to the north of North Section and south of a small pathway outside the church boundary called "The Paddock".

Some of the information I have added to Genuki Rothwell:- http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Rothwell/

It's no good recording the information and then keeping it to myself, that's why I am using Yorkshire Indexers, Genuki Rothwell and now this blog too.