endlessrarities | One Last Trip to West Linton...

Moving forward to the nineteenth century now, with some more gravestones from West Linton.

This particular example caught my eye. It's not as picturesque as the eighteenth century ones, as it lacks the standard motifs, but it follows the same theme in that it has the flanking pillars on either side. On this occasion, though, it has a rather swanky pointed pediment:-

This is an interesting one. The rear panel is blank, with some iron pins nails sticking out which suggest that it was once mounted on a wall, perhaps on the adjacent mortuary enclosure which you can see to the left. At some point, it fell down, or was removed, and some enterprising and sympathetic soul stuck it in the ground like any regular grave slab.

The other features which caught my attention were some odd little grave markers which were scattered about the kirkyard. They were made of iron, and, presumably, they were once inscribed. Here's one of them:-

I've never spotted anything like this before in my travels - perhaps they're rare survivials now. I daresay they'd have been prime quarry for recycling during the First or Second World Wars. It's not exactly a case of beating your ploughshares into swords - more like beating your grave-plaques into shells!