Edwinstowe
St Mary

Churchyard

19th Century plan of proposed
churchyard extension

The Churchyard was extended in 1868 by 2 rood 12 perch to two and a half acres and is now probably the largest in N. Nottinghamshire. It has a listed stone wall on the south and north of the original site and a hedge around the 19c extension.

A map and list of legible gravestones is kept in the Tower room, also a booklet published by Notts Family History Soc. The churchyard was closed in 1986.

Gravestones of Interest

The earliest legible stone is of Ann Oliver 1703

A retired Bow Street Runner Henry Perenee 1841, village constable of Edwinstowe; erected by grateful, parishioners

Dr. E.Cobham Brewer, author of A Dictionary of Phrase & Fable. 1897

A long poem memorial near the East window for a sailor, Richard Neil, and his friend John Birdsall, who drowned on Thoresby Lake after traversing the world during the French wars.

An unpoetic stonemason wrote the following:

Sorrow tried her faith
Sustained her earth has lost
And heaven has gained her.

As in many places a Fair was held in the churchyard from 1381 ‘on the Vigil and Day of S Edwin the King’ (24th October). It was confirmed in 1420.