St John the Baptist Graveyard

A message from Andy Blakely -

You may have heard that I've photographed all of the gravestones in the churchyard and recorded the inscriptions, the rationale being that the inscriptions should be recorded before they deteriorate into illegibility (some already have...).

I've uploaded them to the free Find-A-Grave website where they can be viewed at this page:

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2524019/meshaw-churchyard

If you leave the first and last name fields blank and then press the Search button all of the recorded gravestones will be listed. Alternatively if you're searching for a particular person you can enter first and/or last name and then press Search.

If people are interested in checking what I've done (I've bound to have made some errors...) then perhaps they could spend some of their daily walk doing that. It's very easy, and free, to join the Find-A-Grave website and you can then use the "Suggest Edits" feature to let me know what needs correcting.

I've not recorded any of the memorials inside the church yet. People could do that too if they wish.

There are also eight gravestones that I've had to give up on and record as "Unknown" – use a last name of “unknown” to find these. Perhaps someone with better sight than me can make out parts of the inscription. It may be possible to work out more from the Birth, Marriage and Death records if we can decipher a few details.

If anyone has relatives buried in the churchyard I would be happy to transfer 'management' of the website memorial page to them. I've already been contacted by two such people (who live in Exeter) to apply corrections and do that.

Andy