Walking an old parish graveyard ...... in Lymm and Bothenhampton

 There is something quite special about a parish graveyard.

Which I rather think is best experienced on a warm sunny afternoon when there is no one else about.

Then the place takes on a stillness which fits with those buried under their gravestones.

If you are lucky the only things to distract you are the lazy buzz of insects and the sight of the odd butterfly flitting from one stone monument to another.

Chose your graveyard carefully and along with the gravestones there will be an old stone church “half as old as time” and a distinctive lych gate.

My Wikipedia tells me that “Lychgates consist of a roofed porch-like structure over a gate, often built of wood. 

They usually consist of four or six upright wooden posts in a rectangular shape. 

On top of this are a number of beams to hold a pitched roof covered in thatch or wooden or clay tiles. 

They can have decorative carvings and in later times were erected as memorials. 

They sometimes have recessed seats on either side of the gate itself, for the use of pall-bearers or vigil watchers”.*

Back in 1967 on a sunny day in Dorset I came across just such a moment. 

It was the Holy Trinty Church at Bothenhampton, and while it didn’t have a lych gate in all other respects it fitted the bill.

It dated back to the 13th century with a 15th century tower, had some gravestones and stood isolated and alone in a stretch of fields.

I discovered it by accident on a day with the six of us on holiday we had opted to go our separate ways and I came cross the church.

Unusually it was unlocked, and the interior was cool with that slightly musty smell.  And in the absence of anyone else I felt I was trespassing on that solitude.

To this day I carry the memory of the stillness interrupted by just the regular sound of the clock.

But there my memories prove false because the old church at Bothenhampton doesn’t have a clock.

And nor does the church of St Mary at Lymm which also has connections with the Middle Ages, was mentioned in the Domesday Book and does have a lych gate.

Added to which it has lots of gravestones, some of which now lean to one side.

Alas despite it being a Saturday its door were firmly closed, which guaranteed that I had the place to myself.

But prevented me from exploring the interior which has lots of history.

It also gained in listed status in 1950 a full decade before my church at Bothenhampton which was closed in 1971.

And as you do, standing in the graveyard in Lymm I thought back to that other place in Dorset.

There had been six of  us in a holiday caravan advertised for four.

But the passage of time has been cruel and I can only remember the names of four of us.

And of the four, one died in the 1970s and two have vanished.  Despite my efforts to find them the location of Michael who we called Dobbin and Clive remain lost, which I suppose is is somehow consistent with the slight sense of melancholy which comes over most of us in a graveyard.

Still I do like lych gates.

Location,Bothenhampton, in Dorest and Lymm in Cheshire 

Pictures; walking the graveyard of St Mary's Lymm.

*Lychgate, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychgate