Beautiful Graveyards and Gravestones

As people who have read my other hubs on genealogy know I spend a lot of my spare time in graveyards, in fact my family groans whenever we turn a corner in a road and I spot a new church, I constantly comment on how beautiful their graveyard is and do we have enough time for a quick stop, they just don't get it. I find graveyards one of the most beautiful places, their silence and peace attracts me, the lack of technology, mobile phones (yes I turn mine off) and the surprises and people I meet when I enter them does nothing to dim my enthusiasm for spending time in them.

The photograph above was taken at St. Mary the Virgin in Great Brickhill, a beautiful village situated in the heart of Buckinghamshire. I had been having a very stressful morning, nothing out of the ordinary just busy family life, I managed to find a spare half an hour and this particularly gorgeous paradise of peace. When I entered the graveyard I was greeted by quiet laughter from a group of people picnicking at the front of the church, very unusual, that's a first for me. Moments after my arrival they had packed up and disappeared by the time I reached the entrance, as I walked among the grass and headstones the silence was suddenly and beautifully broken by the sound of the choir, that's where they had disappeared to, and I was so glad that I had arrived in time for my impromptu concert, just for me it seemed.

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In my graveyard wanderings I find beauty and surprises, a beautifully kept graveyard, a hidden tombstone, ornate carvings, secret gates and doors or just the magical shadows that seem to present themselves to your eyes at every turn and it is this quality that I wanted to share in this hub.

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