Ashwell United Reformed Church
Finding your Ancestors in our Churchyard!
Pruning of trees and strenuous efforts by church members during the year have revealed several areas in our churchyard which have not seen the light of day for many a year! Graves once concealed by enveloping yew trees can now be found more easily and stones covered in years of growth of ivy have been carefully cleared so that the inscriptions are visible to any who might wish to find long-dead relations as part of their family history researches.
Thanks to research carried out in the 1980s by David Short and two students, we have a plan of the graves in the churchyard and a record of their inscriptions. Together with similar maps and records from all the other burial places in Ashwell, this information was published in a booklet by the Hertfordshire Family History Society in 1986.
The earliest burial in the churchyard recorded with an inscription, is of Eliza Kirbyshire who died in 1828 aged 2 years. There are a number of gravestones where the inscription is too worn to read, and several more graves that are just grassy mounds with no memorial, so it is possible that there are older graves than those named above.
Here are the family names of people buried in our churchyard taken from David Short’s research, the ones in italic print have been added by Jackie Embury taken from church records plots unknown:
Plots relating to David Short’s plan:
Adkins 25, 34, 38
Albone 33
Angell 55
Bailey 19, 46, 56, 62
Ball 14
Barlow
Barritt 4
Banks Ashes
Bonnett 28
Bray 46, 47, 49, 54, 57
Broad 62
Bryant 1, 27, 37, 43, 65 and Ashes
Burton possibly 71 or 72
Chalkley
Chapman 14, 43
Christy 15, 16, 60, 61, 74
Clark(e) 52
Coulthard 59
Covington 51
Craft 59
Dumville
Edwards 63
Fabb 44
Flitton 5
Frost 39, 40
Garratt
Gentle
Goodchild 14
Goss 17
Hall 30
Harradine
Haylock 31
Hoye 38
Huffer
Huggins 62
Humphrey 29, 41
Izzard 73
Kirbyshire 15, 16
Langan
Laughland Ashes
Lawmon 35
Lee 20, 32
Lloyd
London
Mayse
Mole
Moore 21
Oliver 3
Pack 18, 59, 63, 76
Parcell 19
Payne
Perkins 58
Pickett 11
Picking
Pitty 6, 7, 8, 9
Radford 53
Revels Ashes
Ripshire 17
Scruby 14
Smith
Simmons Ashes
Simons 21
Stewart 48
Strickland 22, 36
Taylor 10
Thorne 19, 74
Tilbrook 42
Watts
Waldock(duck) 2, 23, 26, 59
Wayment
Webb 13, 45
Webber Ashes
Westrope 24, 75
Widdowson 20
Wood
Worboys
There are 76 surnames and 239 burials/ashes recorded in this churchyard
Next time you pass by our churchyard, why not stop and spend a few quiet moments away from the hurly-burly of village life?
Amended Jul 2021
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