Outside the Church

Turvey Church Tour - Part 7

The beauty of All Saints, Turvey does not end when you leave the church building.

The churchyard, with its neatly trimmed box hedges and soft coloured stones is a traditional English graveyard.

This is the Longuet-Higgins' Mausoleum where many members of the family have been buried since the 1800's. There are more pictures and details on its own page on this site.

One of the grotesques that adorn the outside of the church. Click the picture to see lots more photos of these cheeky chaps.

The beautiful lych gate was originally constructed in 1856 and was restored by Charles Lindsell in 1925. The inscription to the left is on a plaque inside the lych gate. Lych is an old English word for a corpse and the lych gate was originally a place where the burial party and ministers could await the deceased in inclement weather.

On the right is the plaque on the lych gate.

There was once a stone in the North East corner of the Churchyard, which cheerily read:

This stone is placed to mark the spot where the decayed remains of many bodies are buried which were found near this place without any memorial in the year 1825. Silent in death, forgotten and unknown. The mouldering relicts of a former age lie mingled here until that solemn day when the dread sound of the arch angels trump shall bid them hasten to the judgement seat and thou lone wanderer must meet them there.

This is a gorgeous box-hedge that grows around Chancery House and the East side of the churchyard.

RESTORED BY

CHARLES T. LINDSELL

IN MEMORY OF HIS ONLY DAUGHTER

MARJORIE TOWER HYLAND

AND HER THREE CHILDREN

DROWNED OFF THE COAST OF NEW GUINEA

JANY 25TH 1925

This is a very rare wooden grave marker, on the West side of the churchyard. It says: "In Memory of CHARLES NEGUS Who Died. December 5th 1861 aged 85 Years".

There are very few wooden grave markers of this sort of age left in Britain.

I would like to include the inscriptions from some of the many old tombstones in the churchyard. I will start adding them as soon as time allows - if anyone out there has any then I would be happy (and grateful) to include them.

This is the little area by the door to the Bell Tower, with bench and bird bath.

The South face of Turvey Church - click the picture to enlarge it.