Growing up by a Graveyard and Church

the path down from St. John the Baptist to their white house
When the Walton children  - Annie #1, Lydia #2 (seated in the banner  photo that titles Walton Lodge blog, second row left between her standing grandson and seated daughter, her husband William Bird Hackett standing behind her), Tom #3, George #4, Ada #5,and James #6 -  were growing up in this 200 year old white house (the old vicarage) it was the new building on the block.[i] 

The grassy area seen down the path was the graveyard. People were being buried here for 500 years before our Waltons arrived. Early wealthy church members are buried under the floor inside. Others are buried outside. In the 1900’s the caretaker moved the tombstones to the side off the grass, "For easier mowing," he proudly told Jim Hackett and me on our visit in 2006. We found reading most of the tombstones impossible for the overgrown bushes.  FindaGrave [ii] (the international group documenting cemeteries) has as, of today, only 29 names listed for the 700 hundred year old St. John’s graveyard, and none taken from reading a tombstone. Early wills give the known burial information. Earliest church records available to us begin in 1564.[i] [iii] 

St John the Baptist 2006.

The well-used path past the house still leads from the stable and carpark to the church.  Brides and Grooms strolled up the hill to their weddings. Babies in their christening gowns were carried to the baptism font. The walkway every Sunday saw crowds of worshippers head to and from services dressed in their finery to pray together.

Granwilla imagined her grandmother “Sarah Atkin Walton, small and frail, felt very proud as she walked to church each Sunday with her three tall, silk hatted sons beside her.”[iv]  This may be a fanciful image, though groom Harry Franks in the banner photo IS holding a tall silk hat. The first three Walton kids were baptized here, but Ava #5 wasn't baptized until age 8, the same day as her 3 month old baby brother, James #6 was, and I haven't found a baptism record at all for George #5. 

Along with celebrations and church services, the path often brought pallbearers carrying wooden coffins to the graveyard. Gravediggers dug deep holes. Mourners wept as their loved ones were lowered into the earth, and when they visited the graves later. All this happened right outside the windows of the Walton home where six children ate, learned, slept, and in the yard where they played.

 Annie #1 told her children two stories about growing up by the graveyard. One was about a ghost. She told of
“a white ghost that flitted nightly for a time in the cemetery and frightened the people. Finally, the doctor could stand it no longer. With gun in hand he waited for the ghost to appear. When it did, he called out, “Man or monkey, God or devil, whoever you are, speak now or I shoot.” The ghost did not speak, he shot, and soon after a man came to his home to be treated for a gunshot wound. That laid the ghost.”    
 
 Annie said they saw many burials in that church yard.
“One day young Jim [#6] and a friend decided to stage a burial of their own. They dug the shallow grave and the friend stretched out in it. Jim shoveled dirt over him and was reading the burial service when one of the family found him, just in time to rescue the lad.”[v]  

         Jim, Pawtillo, and I searched for stones that said Walton, Atkin, or Batchelor. I now that know none of James and Sarah's Walton family are buried here but James' father and mother could be.

Pawtillo and Jim explore the graveyard
moved headstones

St John the Baptist graveyard 2006

 It was tough slogging. Pawtillo enjoyed the exploration. We saw that nature was embracing the stones with brambles so we decided to walk to the canal to see the locks which is when we first saw Badsey’s Pub where we would meet other Waltons at our 2010 July 4th reunion.

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