St Editha's Churchyard, Tamworth

This beautiful shady churchyard is at St Editha's, the Parish Church in Tamworth. There is a monument in the churchyard to six girls who died in a terrible fire at the Castle Inn in 1838.

There is no lodge at this churchyard.

Here is one of my favourite stones in St Editha's - the headston of John Corby. It used to stand above his resting place, but it is now in a different location to the rear of the church. This was one of the many gravestones at St Editha's in Tamworth which were moved when the library was built.

You can see a line part way down the grave, which indicated the earth level. Everything below that line was underground.

The stonemasons were Mitchell's, and the owner's son, Henry, was an apprentice for the firm. Right at the bottom of the stone you can see some of Henry's practice marks. We are privileged that the removal of the stone also revealed his secret hidden verse:

"Stop spectator and this grave view!
The next that's made may be for you.
Henry Mitchell, Tamworth, aged 14, 1820."

Henry was born in 1806, the son of Henry Young Mitchell and Elizabeth nee Ackeroyd. In 1841 he was living in Hopwas with his wife Mary. He died on 24th Aug 1845, only 39 years old, and was buried at St Editha's in Tamworth. His brother Charles carried on the family business, but he too died young, aged 35, and passed the business on to his sons, Henry Young Mitchell and Arthur Mitchell. Henry Young Mitchell's son Henry Charles Mitchell was next in line, and it was he who carved the well-known Aethelflaeda statue in the castle grounds in Tamworth.