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A ledger stone or ledgerstone is an inscribed stone slab usually laid into the floor of a church to commemorate or mark the place of the burial of an important deceased person. The term "ledger" derives from the
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old Englis ...
words ''lygger'', ''ligger'' or ''leger'', themselves derived from the root of the
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
verb ''liċġan'', meaning to lie (down). Ledger stones may also be found as slabs forming the tops of
tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...
chest monuments.


Form and geology

Ledger stones take the form of an inscribed stone slab, usually laid into the floor of a church to commemorate or mark the place of the burial of an important deceased person. Ledger stones may also be found as slabs forming the tops of chest tombs. An inscription is usually incised into the stone within a ledger line running around the edge of the stone. Such inscription may continue within the central area of the stone, which may be decorated with relief-sculpted or incised coats of arms, or other appropriate decorative items such as skulls, hour-glasses, etc. Stones with inset brasses first appeared in the 13th century.''Recorders’ Handbook''.
Ledgerstone Survey of England and Wales, 2015. p. 1.


Stones with cameo lettering in a cartouche

This is a regional style of lettering that occurs in Breconshire and in Lincoln and in
Humberside Humberside () was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in Northern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of the Humber Estuary, created from portions of the East Riding of Yorkshire, We ...
in the United Kingdom. The style where the lettering and
armorial A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms. The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th centur ...
are raised in cameo and the lettering set in a border or
cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...
may indicate a local workshop. These slabs occur during a period from about 1630 to 1740. In Breconshire, these slabs might be connected to the Brute family of stonemasons who lived at Llanbedr Ystrad Yw, Breconshire. Similarly lettered ledger slabs of black marble occur in
Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. Construc ...
and in St Martin's churchyard Lincoln, possibly indicating a local workshop. Neave illustrates another ledger slab of this type of 1718 in
Holy Trinity Church, Hull Hull Minster is the Anglican minster and the parish church of Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The church was called Holy Trinity Church until 13 May 2017 when it became Hull Minster. History It is the largest pa ...
, and indicates that other examples exist in the
East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire t ...
.Neave D. (1988) ''The Dutch Connection: The Anglo-Dutch Heritage of Hull and Humberside'', p. 4.


Tournai and Black Belgian marbles

Rocks from the Tournai area date from the
Carboniferous Period The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonif ...
and have been used to define the Tournaisian Age, a subdivision of the Carboniferous lasting from 359 to 345 million years ago. Tournai stone is a dark limestone which takes a polish and was used particularly in the Romanesque period for sculpted items such as
Tournai font Tournai fonts are a type of baptismal font made from blue black limestone during the 12th and early 13th centuries in and around the Belgian town of Tournai by local masons. There are seven complete examples in England and a disputed number in ...
s. It is sometimes called Tournai marble, though this is geologically inaccurate. These marbles are found over a large area of central Belgium and normally have white inclusions and fossils in them, but there is also the ''Nero Belgio'' which is almost jet black in appearance and come from quarries that are still operating at
Golzinne Golzinne is a hamlet of the village of Bossière in Wallonia. It is administratively part of the city of Gembloux, located in the province of Namur, Belgium. It is notable as the only current producer of " Noir de Golzinne", a black marble. M ...
and
Mazy Mazy ( wa, Mazi) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Gembloux, located in the province of Namur, Belgium. Geography Mazy is crossed by the Orneau (a tributary of the Sambre). Heritage Falnuée Castle Falnuée Ca ...
. It is noticeable that an almost jet black marble, similar to ''Nero Belgio'' occurs as ledger slabs in the latter part of the 18th and early 19th centuries, an example being Dean Kaye's memorial in
Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. Construc ...
. Many other black ledger stones of the 17th to 19th centuries have white flecking, which may also suggest that they come from Belgian sources. Neave notes references in the Hull port books in the 17th and 18th centuries to the importation of ledger stones, and draws comparisons between those in churches in Humberside and those in St Bavokerk's church in
Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...
. Some of the closest examples of ledgerstones come from the St Stevenskerk,
Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...
, but the Dutch examples normally use upper case lettering for the inscriptions. In a survey of heraldic ledger stones in Kent churches made by N. E. Toke in 1929 a specimen of a stone was sent to Dr. H. Thomas of the Geological Museum who reported "the stone to be a black limestone of carboniferous age … which comes principally from Belgium…. It is probable that these monumental slabs were imported from Belgium in the same way as plates of 'latten' (laiton) had been in the era of brasses. This would account for their prevalence in Kent and East Anglia, for the transport of these heavy stones would be easier and cheaper".


Sussex Marble or Petworth Marble

Sussex Marble is a
fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
iferous freshwater
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...
material which is prevalent in the
Weald Clay Weald Clay or the Weald Clay Formation is a Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rock unit underlying areas of South East England, between the North and South Downs, in an area called the Weald Basin. It is the uppermost unit of the Wealden Group of ...
of parts of
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
,
East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...
and
West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
in
South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...
. It is also called "Petworth Marble", "Bethersden Marble" or "Laughton Stone" in relation to villages where it was quarried, and another alternative name is "winklestone". It is referred to as "marble" as it polishes very well, although it is not a true marble, geologically speaking, as it has not been subject to metamorphism. The
matrix Matrix most commonly refers to: * ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise ** '' The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film ** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchi ...
is made up of the shells of freshwater
gastropods The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. The ...
and ''
viviparus ''Viviparus'', common name the river snails, is a genus of large, freshwater snails with an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks.Bouchet, P. (2014). Viviparus Montfort, 1810. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.ma ...
'' winkles, similar to but larger than those making
Purbeck Marble Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone found in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England. It is a variety of Purbeck stone that has been quarried since at least Roman times as a decorative building stone. Geology St ...
. There are a number of fonts made from this material and it was also used for ledger slabs in the medieval period and as a matrix stone for
monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pav ...
es. It is very possible that it continued to be used for later ledger slabs.


Alabaster

Alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that include ...
is well known for its use for church monuments with effigies, but also on occasions for ledger slabs. These occur in the East Midland counties of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with four outlying examples in Lincolnshire. Examples date mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries, with incised figures. An exceptional example of an alabaster ledger slab is that of Richard and Isabel Tresham in Geddington Church in Northamptonshire dated 1433. The sword in the slab is inlaid with a blueish-greenish stone as is also Isabel's headdress. Richard is shown with a dog beneath his feet, and below the couple are their six children, five daughters and a son.


Swithland Slate

Swithland Swithland is a linear village in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. The civil parish population was put at 230 in 2004 and 217 in the 2011 census. It is in the old Charnwood Forest, between Cropston, Woodhous ...
slate was widely used for ledger and gravestones in many areas of the East Midlands from the mid-18th century until the 1890s when the last quarries closed. Unlike the ''black'' marbles it resists the weather better and can be used both inside churches and outside in graveyards. Swithland lies to the north of
Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...
and most of the quarrying activity took place in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the principal slate quarries were at Swithland Wood, The Brand, Groby and Woodhouse Eaves. The two landowners with slate resources on their estates were the Herrick family of Beaumanor Hall, Old Woodhouse and the
Earl of Stamford Earl of Stamford was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1628 for Henry Grey, 2nd Baron Grey of Groby. This Grey family descended through Lord John Grey, of Pirgo, Essex, younger son of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, ...
at Groby and Swithland It is noted that the Hind family were leasing the Groby quarry from 1766 and their name often occurs on ledgerstones and gravestones. Their distinctive decorative carving makes it easy to recognise work coming from their workshop. Their work can be recognised in
Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire ...
and adjacent areas of
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...
. Swithland slate was also transported into south-west Lincolnshire by the
Grantham Canal The Grantham Canal ran 33 miles (53 km) from Grantham through 18 locks to West Bridgford, where it joined the River Trent. It was built primarily for the transportation of coal to Grantham. It opened in 1797 and its profitability stead ...
and occurs in churches and churchyards around
Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln a ...
.


Swithland Slate Ledger stones


Use in Britain

Many British
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
es contain ledger stones. Over 250,000 stones survive, mostly from the late seventeenth to the late eighteenth centuries,Ledgerstones.
Ledgerstones Survey of England & Wales. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
after which period they are rarer. Since the modern era when burials within church buildings have been discontinued for reasons of health and hygiene, the ledger stone is no longer commonly used, and its function has been taken by the upright inscribed
grave stone A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, d ...
erected in the church-yard or purpose-made cemetery. Ledger stones were favoured by the British middle classes as they were cheaper than a more elaborate monument. They were frequently laid down by the family of the
lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
or holder of the
advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a ...
of the parish in question, and such family often had its own private
chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type ...
within the parish church, often at the east end of the north aisle, where the manorial pew was situated and where members of the family were buried.


Entitlement to use

It is not clear what criteria were needed to qualify a deceased person to be buried within a church (rather than in the churchyard outside) or to merit a ledger stone. Examples of ledger stones range from the aristocracy, country gentry, the professions, clergy to merchants and tradesmen. At
Tattershall Tattershall is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the A153 Horncastle to Sleaford road, east from the point where that road crosses the River Witham. At its eastern end, Tatte ...
in Lincolnshire there is a slab to the local apothecary and surgeon with an inscription under a skull and crossbones. A late 17th-century slab in
Brecon Cathedral Brecon Cathedral ( cy, Eglwys Gadeiriol Aberhonddu), in the town of Brecon, Powys, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon in the Church in Wales and seat of the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon. Previously the church of Brecon Priory ...
records a local butcher. It is noticeable that the inscriptions for many clergy and some gentry were inscribed in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
, but this largely disappears by about 1740. A ledger stone in St Nectan's Church,
Hartland, Devon The village of Hartland, whose parish incorporates the hamlet of Stoke to the west and the village of Meddon in the south, is the most north-westerly settlement in the county of Devon, England. Now a large village which acts as a centre for a ...
, to Thomas Docton (d.1618) of Docton, bore originally a "quaint" epitaph which is oft-quoted, for example in '' Epitaphs for Country Churchyards'' by Augustus John Cuthbert Hare.See also Chope, R. Pearse, ''The Book of Hartland'', Torquay, 1940, p.142. It begins "Rejoice not over me, oh my enemie", but was originally surrounded by a brass ledger line inscribed with the following verse:


Use in continental Europe

Ledger stones with engraved or relief figures of the deceased are not very common in the UK, but are more widely used in Germanic and Scandinavian countries. In German the word ''Grabplatte'' (literally "grave panel") is used for flat slabs but can also refer to slabs vertically attached on walls of churches and graveyards, and often to plain stone panels covering graves in cemeteries as well. The French term is ''dalle funéraire''.


Preservation

Because they are floor coverings, ledger stones are vulnerable to wear from foot traffic and damage from structural alterations to churches. The Ledgerstones Survey of England & Wales exists to record the information on the stones before it is lost.Home.
Ledgerstones Survey of England & Wales. Retrieved 3 November 2015.


Gallery

File:WilliamWadham Died1452 Brass StMary'sChurch Ilminster Somerset.PNG, Ledger stone to William Wadham (died 1452) St Mary's Church, Ilminster, Somerset. On a
chest tomb Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and com ...
with inlaid brass fillet ledger line and
monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pav ...
es. File:Interior of All Hallows, Clixby - geograph.org.uk - 429195.jpg, Ledger stone All Hallows', Clixby, Lincolnshire File:1588 Grave Cover in the Nave of St. Martin's - geograph.org.uk - 720250.jpg, 1588 Grave Cover in the Nave of St Martin's, Thompson, Norfolk File:Ledger Slab in Brecon Cathedral. 07.jpg, 1630. Ledger Slab in
Brecon Cathedral Brecon Cathedral ( cy, Eglwys Gadeiriol Aberhonddu), in the town of Brecon, Powys, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon in the Church in Wales and seat of the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon. Previously the church of Brecon Priory ...
. File:Abbot Richard Horncastle - geograph.org.uk - 280780.jpg, Abbot Richard Horncastle in Bardney Church, Lincolnshire. File:Memorials at St Mary's Church, Staunton in the Vale (5).jpg, Memorials at St Mary's Church, Staunton in the Vale, Nottinghamshire File:Sir John and Elizabeth Pate - geograph.org.uk - 1301731.jpg, Sir John and Elizabeth Pate,
St Mary's Church, Melton Mowbray St Mary is the parish church of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. The large medieval church, described as "one of the finest parish churches in Leicestershire", suffered from a poor Victorian restoration, and was left in a poor state of repair and d ...
, Leicestershire File:Interior of St Michael, Buslingthorpe - geograph.org.uk - 428782.jpg, Interior of St Michael, Buslingthorpe, Lincolnshire. File:Trelystan Church, Montgomeryshire 10.JPG, Trelystan Church, Montgomeryshire


References


Literature

* Blair, J. (1991) ''Purbeck Marble'' in Blair, J. and Ramsey, N. ''English Medieval Industries: Craftsmen, techniques and Products'' Hambledon Press; pp. 41–56. * Boutell, C. (1854), ''Christian monuments in England and Wales: an historical and descriptive sketch of the various classes of sepulchral monuments which have been in use in this country from about the era of the Norman conquest to the time of Edward the Fourth''. London 1854

* Fawcett, Jane (2001) ''Historic Floors Their Care and Conservation''. Butterworth Heinemann * Greenhill, F. A. (1986), ''Monumental Incised Slabs in the County of Lincoln'', Coales Foundation, Newport Pagnell. * Greenhill, F. A. (1969), ''Incised Effigial Slabs: A Study of Engraved Stone Memorials in Latin Christendom, c. 1100 to c. 1700.'', Faber, London. 2 vols. * McGrath, Annette (2006) ''The Rock Quarries of Charnwood Forest'' Vol. 16 * Ramsey, D. A., (2000). ''Newtown Linford Notes and the Leicestershire Slate Industry''. (Bradgate and its Villages Series, 4.) Groby: Ramsey.


External links

{{Wiktionary, ledger
Ledgerstone Survey of England & Wales



Church Monuments Society

Ledger stones
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