Headstones survey
A survey of headstones in the churchyard at Holy Trinity Church The Quaker Meeting House has a full and accurate record of every burial in the Meeting House Graveyard but this was not the case at the Anglican Church of Holy Trinity.
The church and graveyard receives many visitors during the course of a year, some of whom are seeking to find the final resting place of family members who are thought to have been buried in the village. In 2004 members of the Sibfords’ Society carried out a survey to record all the headstones in the graveyard and to produce an index of those buried in the churchyard whose headstones remained. The original 1840 graveyard was extended in 1903, 1939 and again in 2009.
Over a period of several months members examined every headstone recording its shape, overall size, any inscription plus any other unusual features. The area south of the church, included the majority of the oldest graves and those surveying in this area often found themselves on their hands and knees or even fully extended on the ground to decipher parts of headstones which had sunk lower in the ground.
Once recording was complete an alphabetical index was completed and a copy of the final survey was printed and left in the church to be used by visitors. It is updated periodically