Grave Issues – Death By Waggon Wheels

Ss Raphael & Isidore, Petton

Continuing our series about our churchyards ….

From time immemorial, our churchyards have been, and still are, places of peace and tranquillity.  If ever you have the time, it’s always worth taking a stroll among the graves – you never know what might make you stop for a moment and give you pause for thought.

If you walk around the Church of Ss Raphael & Isidore, Petton, you will find on the South wall a single wall-mounted headstone.  The passage of time has eroded much of this once fine, but simple headstone.  What we are left with, however, is the unusual recording of the details surrounding the manner of death of this once much-loved gentleman.

The dedication reads as follows:

In
Memory
Of
EDW^D  HAYWARD
whose death was caused by the
wheels of a waggon going over
his head on the 3^rd  Sept^r

(Year illegible)

Perhaps more information can be gleaned from the Parish Burial Records, but for now, we are left wondering about what truly happened on that terrible day all those years ago.

VJC