IMAGES OF MORTALITY ON LINCOLNSHIRE SLATE GRAVESTONES.

South Lincolnshire has a large number of slate gravestones in its churchyards. These are beautifully preserved and some of them have incredible detail on them. In the Bourne area the name Fish appears on the bottom of some of the finest graves.

  Some of these, but not all that many, show the skull design. Pictured above left, a skull design on a slate gravestone from Dunsby South Lincolnshire. To the right of that another design featuring a skull, and an anchor, from neighbouring Dowsby.

  Below left, and this was found by myself in the church grounds at Folkingham. Folkingham has some of the finest gargoyles and grotesques in the area...but sdaly, the skill of this particular stonemason was not up to that standard. Very basic attempt this, looking more like a one eyed cyclops! To the right of that, intricate worksmanship at Stoke Rochford. This appears to be a "mass produced" template as I have seen exactly identical design at Kirkby Underwood.

The beautiful old grave on the left comes from the church at Swaton. The part of the church grounds where this grave was to be found was fairly overgrown and I was regretting the cycling shorts I was wearing as I made my way through the nettles to get to this one.

  Unusually styalised skull, just look at the pointed chin, is to be seen in the top right of the grave. I think that there are human bones behind the skull but they are a little indistinct.

  A crown and what may well be a horn are on the left hand side.

  A lovely piece of work and almost worth getting stung half a dozen times!

Symbolism rife in this beautiful carving, from the church grounds of St Andrew, Hacconby. Grieving widow, skull and crossed bones, tree of life with shoots coming off it it denoting the continuation of life. I have noticed that there are often storm clouds with rain pouring down. Can rain represent sorrow? Anyway, lovely carving! To the right of that a mid 18th Century slate grave from the grounds at Tallingon. Very crude representation of a skull.

Still on the theme of mortality, the grieving widow in the picture left, taken from the church grounds at Sempringham near to Bourne, is holding a torch representing life. This is symbolically turned downwards to indicate death. The Sun blazing down in the top right of the image represents the continuation of life...unless I am over analysing the heck out of everything!!! In the picture right, from Edenham, again near to Bourne, Old Father Time's scythe is present, as is a winged hour glass to represent the passing of time. Torch of life appears on the right, this time pointing upwards though casting much doubt on what I said a few seconds ago! The text in the middle reads "Search The Scriptures, Alas how short is life".