Old and new church

Heptonstall is unusual in having two churches within one graveyard. The old church, St Thomas à Becket, was built around 1260, with later adaptations. A huge storm in 1847 caused part of the tower to fall away, so in 1854 the current church, St Thomas the Apostle was constructed a few yards away. The old church and ancient graveyard are carefully maintained and services are sometimes still held within the ruined nave. 

There are approximately 2100 graves in the old churchyard, and I read somewhere that there may be up to 100,000 people buried there. Many of the graves list whole families; where possible they have all been transcribed, which is important as, over the years, the lettering weathers or the stone crumbles away.  

I could honestly spend all day wandering around graveyards. there are many stories to uncover, especially where there are old graves. Some of these date back to the 1600s. 

Behind the new church, another more modern graveyard is still in use. It's here that the resting place of the poet and writer Sylvia Plath can be found. Her life and tragic death are well-documented and the cause of much speculation. Her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, from whom she was separated at the time she took her own life, comes from this area of Yorkshire and had her buried here. Her grave is a place of pilgrimage for some.  It has been damaged several times by people trying to obliterate her married name and the inscription chosen by Ted Hughes for the memorial.  

"Death must be so beautiful.  To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence.  To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow.   To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace."         

Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar)