Recording History in the Prescot St Mary Churchyard
As a part of our work in the Churchyard, we have been recording the history of all of the gravetones which we can see many of which date back to the 1700s and the 1800s including one in the Garden of Rest dating back to the 1600s.
In the early 1970s, and in later years leading up to the year 2000, many of the gravestones were moved away from the place where they were originally installed towards the top end of the Churchyard so where the Garden of Rest, the Church Hall and the War Memorial now reside.
Part of the reason this was done was to create a pathway or ‘walkway’ right arouund the Parish Church and this resulted in the random re-installation of those headstones which someone decided should be re-laid in a random manner and often, cut to fit the available space along the newly created pathway.
One such example is this gravestone ‘fragment’ which can be found tight up against the Church wall.
*photo*
It’s a good example of how severely worn Inscriptions can be deciphered.
Wetting the surface produces more contrast and clarity to what can be seen to the present day (July 2026).
All that could be read was:
“…….who departed this life November 1st? 1759?
Also James Husband
of Mary departed
This life ? July 17?”
From that scant piece of available information we were able to research burial records and conclude that it is:
James and Mary Edden.
Mary died 1st November 1759, buried on the 3rd.
James was buried 6th July 1762 so possibly died on the 4th.
They lived in Prescot and James was a Saddler.
