Introduction to the Burial Memorials in Binham Priory Churchyard

The transcription of these memorials is the work of members of the Binham Local History Group. For details of the Group and its future events, please click Here.

Transcription for the web: Many gravestones are inscribed in capital letters, some in italic and some in bold etc. There is therefore no consistency. This transcription uses the format of 'Book Title', so that each word begins with a capital letter and continues in lowercase. Names are printed in capitals for easy reference.

However the inscription on the stone is formatted, an attempt has been made here to standardise it for easy reference: Name and heading – date of death – age -(any others added similarly) – epitaph.

Notes: Editorial notes are placed in any column in blue. These are the work of the administrator and any inaccuracies are his alone, and should not be attributed to the members of the BLHG.

Searching: The web page is a long one to facilitate searching. The nature of memorials is such that Christian names and surnames are not necessarily inscribed together e.g. Mary the wife of John Jones, or John Jones, who died....and Mary his wife. This means that a search for Mary Jones, depending on the search engine used, might not find the reference. A primary search should therefore be for the surname only, and this may well produce the best results which can then be filtered or refined.

Reference Numbers: The reference numbers at the beginning of each entry are important, particularly if you wish to find the grave. E = Easting, and N = Northing and refer to the Church Plan of the Graveyard.

Burial Traditions: Please remember that many people were buried in the past without gravestones and simply in shrouds, the grave unmarked. The site has certainly been used as a graveyard since before the Norman Conquest, and therefore the ground has been turned many times and some remains have either perished completely or been re-interred. A simple calculation will suffice. If 30 people died each year (including children and plague times – a conservative estimate) over 1000 years the numbers of burials will amount to 30,000. This is one of the reasons that many ancient churchyards stand proud of the church! (Another is that a Church sinks 1 inch every hundred years.) In tracing genealogy therefore first recourse should always be made to parish records and registers, as these will be more comprehensive and contain information which pre-dates the use of gravestones.

For the Text of the Memorials , click Here.