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![Walter NARRAMORE, [Parents?]](img/male.jpg)
Walter NARRAMORE, [Parents?]
Abt 1560 - 1659 (~ 99 years)
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The gravestone of Walter Narramore and his grandson John
If you visit Ideford now it appears that Walter and John were buried not in the churchyard but in the body of the church. This was a more expensive option than a churchyard burial and if true would indicate the family were prospering at this time. However, they may not have been; when work was done on the floor a few years ago there were found to be no bones under that stone, or elsewhere in the area that the church covered in 1659. In the C19th the church was extended and a local archaeologist suggested that the stones now in the church may have stood / lain in the area now covered by the church and so been moved to the church floor. If that were the case, rather than the bones having been removed at some point (previous work on the floor?) then I think the stone was probably part of a table tomb. Although the tomb has a large uninscribed area which could have been to set it upright, it doesn't look long enough to me, compared with other stones I have seen the length of, and the border line goes around the whole stone, whereas the decoration is usually confined to that part which will be seen. (However, it is from a different era which I guess could explain these differences).
Most interestingly, I was told the stone is not local, but a quality stone from the Yelverton area. Walter's heirs may not have paid extra for a burial in church but were clearly not short of a penny or two.
I had seen mention of this gravestone before I visited Ideford, and expected to be searching amongst a number of such stones, but it is central in the nave, unmissable.
The stone is inscribed:
Here Lyeth the Body of
Walter Narramore of
this P[ar]ish Yeoman who
was Buried the 20th Day
of April 1659 aged 99
Yeares
Also the Body of John
Narramore of Kings
Kerswell Grandson to
Walter Narramore
Who was Buried the 4th
Day of February 1687
Aged 55 Yeares.
(the fancy 'P' of Parish is a now archaic way of abbreviating the letters 'Par'; 'the' is inscribed on the stone as a thorn with a lower case 'e' above)
Status: Located
| Owner of original | Teresa Goatham (thanks to the Ideford Bellringers for moving the furniture to enable me to take this photo) |
| Date | 12 Sep 2013 |
| File name | narramore-grave.jpg |
| File Size | 249.31k |
| Dimensions | 673 x 750 |
| Linked to | John NARRAMORE (Burial); Walter NARRAMORE, [Parents?] (Burial) |
Ideford Church and Churchyard, Ideford, Devon, England
Notes: Here I know of a direct ancestor and another with a memorial in the Church, rather than the churchyard. This was unusual for my family when I found it, but it now appears they may have been buried in the churchyard and the memorial stone later moved!