What is recorded here
Graveslab in Newtown is a tapering stone buried beneath the graveyard of Newtown Earley, where it waited for the clean-up that finally dragged it into daylight. It belongs to the thirteenth or fourteenth century, when a craftsman cut a three-armed floriated cross into its surface and gave the shaft a calvary mount made of four concentric semi-circles. The slab now lies inside the medieval church, no longer marking one named dead person but still holding the shape of the faith that buried them.
Associated with the medieval church of Newtown Earley (KK027-012001-). A large number of graveslabs were uncovered during a clean-up of graveyard (KK027-012009-) in 1985-7 (Harte 1987, 408-17). These are currently lying within the interior of the church.
A tapering slab (L 1.97m; Wth 0.73m at top; Wth 0.43m at base) with chamfered edge, decorated with an incised three-armed floriated cross, with a circular knop under the cross-head, with a scroll springing from either side of the shaft above it. The shaft terminates with a stylised calvary mount consisting of four concentric semi-circles. Stylistically this graveslab dates to the 13th/14th century. (Harte 1987, 409-410, no. 5).
Reference:
Harte, R. 1987 Tombstones at Newtown Earley. Old Kilkenny Review 39, 408-17.
See attached:
KK027-012014-_01 Illustration from Harte 1987, 409, no. 5
Compiled by: Jean Farrelly
Date of upload: 2 May 2023
Medieval Christian graveslab, 13th–15th century. Significant as part of a group of slabs from a post-Reformation clean-up, reflecting funerary practices and social history in a rural English parish.
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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