MEM25169 - All Saints Churchyard, Dulverton (Monument)

"Grave Yard" depicted and labelled on the 25 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. [1] The original church was described by an architect, in 1852, as dating from about 1500. [2] The graveyard has been in use since medieval times. [3] The church was rebuilt in the 1850s by Shewbrooks of Taunton, to designs by Edworth Ashworth, the Exeter diocesan architect. The church was widened but the old columns were reused and the original layout was largely kept. The steep slope of the site has been dug out to accommodate the enlarged church with the area above the church being terraced in 1917 to facilitate burial and prevent land slipping. During archaeolgical monitoring of groundworks at All Saints' Church, five articulated skeletons and disarticulated human bone were uncovered. A small quantity of coffin furniture was recovered, it was plain and undiagnostic. No name plates were recovered, which suggests that all of the burials were pre 18th century. Two fragments of encaustic tile were retrieved and are probably evidence of early building fabric from the pre 1850 building. [4] The churchyard was fenced in 1856, and subsequently terraced. [5] There are a few good examples of ironwork enclosing the churchyard. [6] In 1855, the Trustees spent £48 on the church wall, to improve the churchyard and its approaches. [7] It has been suggested that because it has a circular churchyard, like Carhampton and other early church sites, Dulverton church may have been in existence in the early Anglo-Saxon period. As a royal manor and hundred, Dulverton would have been well placed to serve as an ecclesiastical centre for southeast Exmoor. The Augustinian canons of Taunton Priory had acquired Dulverton church and its land by 1155. [8] The churchyard contains two CWGC war graves, for Pte Frank Gunney (392444, Labour Corps) and Sergeant WC Hayes (32177, Devonshire Regiment). [9] Another gravestone includes an inscription commemorating Private Frederick Parkhouse (29344, East Yorkshire Regiment), who was killed in action near Ypres and buried at Welsh Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen. [9,10] A postcard of the view of the church from Bank Square is held by Historic England. [11] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [12] The Churchyard is depicted but not labelled on the 2022 MasterMap data. [13] The churchyard is mentioned in the 2019 Conservation Area Appraisal for Dulverton. The report states that the churchyard "runs up the steep valley, [and] offers a less frequented and more contemplative space away from the town centre." [14]