A few weeks ago I saw a photo from one of my contacts on Flickr which intrigued me. The photo in question was taken in the churchyard of St. Luke’s church in Newton Harcourt, Leicestershire – just a few miles from where I live.
Today I managed to dash out there, between the showers of rain and take a few photos.
The memorial is to one Christopher V. Gardner who died at the tragically young age of just eight years in 1924. A nearby grave is that of his father, George, and the inscription states “Maker of his son’s Christopher’s Little Church which stands here”.
I am very curious as to why this little lad had a model church built as his memorial. I entered the church in search of more information, but was unable to find any. The model doesn’t really resemble the church who’s yard the grave stands in (see photo of St. Luke’s, Newton Harcourt below).
In 1992 I was given a book as a present from my aunt : Timpson’s England. After all these years I still take it down from the shelf for an occasional browse. It is full of curiosities from all over England and yet, despite the fact that it features quite a lot of curious tombs, and even features a few curiosities from Leicestershire, there is no mention of this grave. However this struck me as a reminder that there are out of the ordinary things to be seen, even very close to home, if you just take the time to look.
Note : The photo I originally saw was taken by RATAEDL and can be seen here. My thanks to him for drawing this unusual monument to my attention.
Technorati Tags: curiousity, Leicestershire, Newton Harcourt, St. Luke’s Church, tomb
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July 19, 2008 at 7:29 pm
A little later on in the day and I’ve managed to find the background story. Quite a touching one it is at that. I won’t repeat it all here but simply link to “Leicestershire Historian” issue 39 (2003). Scroll to the bottom of page 14 and read on.