Continuing our RTI project with the New Forest Park Authority, where we have completed a number of captures at Emery Down, Burley and Minstead, and Copythorne, Archaeovision spent a day at St Michael & All Angels church in Lyndhurst capturing a number of gravestones, including Listed tomb (List entry 1094726). The current church building, which is the third on the site, was built between 1858-69 during the Victorian period. The churchyard is known as the last resting place of Alice Hargreaves (who inspired the Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll) and contains a number of gravestones, all of which contain hard to read inscriptions.

The recording completed by Archaeovision falls under the Heritage Lottery funded Our Past, Our Future project which incorporates community based outreach within their Rediscovering and Conserving Our Archaeological Heritage sub-project.

The results of the RTI survey, as well as the volunteer documentation project will provide a snapshot of the graveyard today, and will help define a management plan for the graveyard for the future, whilst identifying monuments that require conservation. All the data captured will be made publicly available, allowing residents or visitors to trace family members and their resting places, and local history groups to undertake research to discover more about the area’s past.

The following RTI examples provide a before and after snapshot of the results collected at Lyndhurst. Similar to the inscriptions at Minstead, those found at Lyndhurst are extremely worn and hard to decipher, even with RTI. The text has been digitised for those who may find it hard to identify all of the features, but parts of the inscriptions are missing due to the the deterioration of the gravestones.

In
Memory of
William Blampin
Who died in Lyndhurst
December 17th 1879
Aged 11 years
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down,
Thy head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary and worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting-place,
And He has made me glad.
His end was P….

Also of
William Blampin
The beloved son of
William & Elizabeth Blampin
who died at Bam.. December 10th 1879
Aged 6 months
Not only … memory

To
The memory of
William Hurl
Who departed this life
December 2nd 1840
Aged 72 years
_

Also of Fanny
Wife of the above
who departed this life
December 15th 1851
Aged 66 years
_
Their end was …

To the memory of
Francis Ranger
Who departed this life
Dec 17th 1815. Aged 78 years
Also
In the memory of
Ann Ranger
wife of
Francis Ranger
who departed this life
June 23rd 1810
Aged 63 years

Sacred
To the memory of
James M’Taggart ESQ
…
who departed this life
November 7th 1851
Aged 54?

Also to …
who departed this life 15th
November 1889
Aged 75 years

_
….