All Saints Churchyard, Thurcaston

Most of the gravestones are made of local Swithland slate and show the development of this material from crude slabs poorly carved to the grand examples of smoothly finished stones with beautiful lettering and embellishments of the late Victorian period.

The earliest gravestone is considered to be the oldest in Leicestershire. It marked the grave of the Rector Elias Travers who died in 1641. The remaining portion of it now rests in the Church for protection against the elements.

The oldest stones still standing outside commemorate the Wilson family, carrying dates between 1682 and 1696. There are nine stones of the Weston family, the principal farmers in the village, with a range of dates from 1770 to 1852.

The largest family grouping is that of 13 of the Burchnalls from Cropston (the parish was Thurcaston cum Cropston). This family features in the parish records from as early as 1564. They began as farmers and later developed a successful small brewery business.

The oldest example of a headstone produced by a professional stonemason dates from 1793 when “Pollard of Swithland” signed a stone.

The graveyard contains the remains of past Rectors, farmers, carpenters, teachers, butchers and publicans who lived in the parish as well as more anonymous members of our community. The area around the church was closed for burials in 1934 and a civil cemetery established on Leicester Road.

A survey of the memorials in both the graveyard and the civil cemetery has been carried out by members of the Thurcaston and Cropston Local History Society. Please contact Brenda Hooper (0116 220 3046), if you would like details of the precise location of a particular grave.

For those of you who are searching for particular names, below is a list of all the surnames still legible on the gravestones in the graveyard at the Church:
Allen, Archers, Armstrong. Astill, Atkinson, Ayres, Bailey, Ballard, Balls, Barwell, Bell, Billings, Billson, Bowes, Bowler, Bradley, Branson, Burchnall, Burdon, Buttery, Callis, Carr, Clarke, Cooke, Cragg, Cramp, Dale, Daykin, Dexter, Emms, Fox, Fuller, Garner, Glover, Goddard, Godwin, Graves, Griffin, Hackett, Hamilton, Harrison, Heich, Hilton, Hind, Hughes, Hulse, Johnson, Kellem, Kirby, Laidler, Lakin, Lane, Leake, Leeson, Linley, Lowe, Malon, Marshall, McConnell, Neale, Newbold, Nichols, O’arton, Ormer, Padimore, Peet, Pickard, Pickering, Porter, Potterton, Potts, Preston, Raddle, Reeves, Reynolds, Rollet, Seal, Seell, Sharpe, Sibson, Sills, Simpkin, Skertchley, Slater, Smith, Sourthernwood, Sparks, Spencer, Stanyon, Stibbe, Stone, Sykes, Taylor, Thornton, Thurston, Tilly, Tippler, Tolley, Tompkins, Toone, Tyers, Varnam, Verity, Wade, Walker, Wallace, Warburton, Ward, Watts, Webster, Weight, Weston, Whattass, Wigston, Willby, Wilson, Wood, Wright, Yeomans.