Churchyard
This is unusually large for a churchyard in Cornwall though it has apparently been extended three times. To the east of the older part (which is approximately circular in shape) are areas which came into use probably in the early 19th and mid-20th centuries. The north-east part was previously part of the Trecarne Lands. The churchyard cross and the war memorial are both modern and formed of granite. All the pre-Victorian gravestones are of local slate: the earliest of them are between 1690 and 1710. There were excavations here in 1990 and 1991 (north-west of the church).
The most interesting memorials are the tomb of John Douglas Cook, founder editor of the Saturday Review (d. 1868) north-west of the church, and the wooden cross over the grave of Domenico Catanese (d. 1893) to the east. (On December 20, 1893 at Lye Rock the barque Iota was driven against the cliff. The crew were able to get onto the rock and apart from a youth of 14 were saved: his grave is marked by a wooden cross (the name is given in the official Italian usage, surname first: Catanese Domenico, on a lifebuoy).
The jacket illustration for J. L. Carr's A Month in the Country shows Tintagel Parish Church whereas the story is set in Yorkshire. The grave outside the churchyard wall was suggested by Tintagel where a number of early graves were encountered in ploughing Trecarne Lands and excavated in 1956. They were dated most probably between 500 and 1000 AD by the county archaeologist.
Read more about this topic: Tintagel Parish Church
Famous quotes containing the word churchyard:
“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman pass by!”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)