Adel churchyard

The churchyard of St John the Baptist, Adel, is a something of a romantic fantasy, certainly in the spring, when bluebells and wild garlic billow around the graves like waves on the sea. 

Both the very old and more recent gravestones are made beautiful by the wildflowers, so that the few offerings of conventional flowers and wreaths look strangely out of place. 

Nature is allowed her freedom, though sinuous paths are carefully mown to allow people to explore or access the graves. 

The wounded angel was part of one of the larger Victorian tombs: a memorial to Susannah Jane Hirst, who sadly died in 1884 aged only 33. On the canopy are the words 'Until the day break and the shadows flee away'. Her husband, James Audus Hirst is also interred here. He died 12 years after his wife, aged 50. One wonders if the shadows ever fled away, for him....

It's a place to rest quietly, for both the living and those who have passed.