St Erth Churchyard
courtesy of Suezan Elliott via Wayne George
St ERTH is a restful churchyard with flowers and shrubs shaded by tall trees. On the corners of the towers grotesque dogs lean out as though reading the headstones. The Vault of the HAWKINS family is built into the bank at the East End of the Church. It is surmounted by a sarcophagus with moulded feet, an urn at one end and a chest tomb at the other. Against the wall of the gully at the east end of the church are some 18th century slates with highly skilled lettering, even if the spacing is somewhat erratic. One of them has an heraldic crest cut in relief: it is in memory of William DAVIES of Bosworgy in this parish who died in 1690 aged 54. The long epitaph begins: Must death divide us now and close thine eyes How shall I live when thou art gone to hear our children's cries Look on but spare your tears, forbear to weep My Deaths no Death in Christ, a blessed sleep. A big slate against the same wall is carved with an urn and two roundels. The epitaph has a metaphorical message: Near this stone in intr'd the remains of John ROWE of Trevin, Gent who departed this life June 24th aged 79 and Luce his wife who departed this life December 1714 aged 62 O lord what a feeble worm is man That like a flower doth fade He cometh up and is cut down Beneath nights sable shade To thee dear Lord our precious souls We joyfully resigne Blessed Jesus take us for thine own For we are ever thine Several of the headstones are signed by john TREVASKIS Sculptor of St Erth. By the gate is a small kerbed area and a slate which reads: Within this enclosure is interred the bodies of 6 persons who in the year 1832 died of the awful visitation of cholera. Another nearby records the death of Amos DABB who for fifty years was schoolmaster in the parish, Other occupations are Roger WEARN watch and clockmaker , who died in 1820 and has a rather worn slate on the church wall; also Jochebe HOCKIN who was in the service of one family from 1750 until she died in 1814 aged 86. Under the trees is a little cluster of iron memorials, all similar, and nearly all of them in memory of small children End More churchyard pictures
� Dee 2001