PLUMTREE

CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN

Church Post Code NG12 SND

The second gravestone here has not weathered as well as the first. It is not in good conditions and it looked to me as if the face of the angel had suffered some damage, deliberate or accidental.

It reads 'Remember Thy End. across the top; a reminder to those looking on that Man is mortal and will die. This was an important lesson in days where life expectancy was low and death was more a part of everyday life than it is today. The stone is to one Mary Rowe who herself died at a very early age.

'Here lies the body of Mary the wife of Thos Rowe of Clipstone in this parish who departed this life August the 12th 1721 her age 24 years'

'Though death has parted you and I our bodys to dust must turn

I hope that we shall meet again you have no cause to mourn

dear friends do not lament for me but cheer up now your heart

(rest of inscription sunk in to ground but is liable to say 'you will come to join me where death no more will part')

There are two Vale of Belvoir Angels at the church of St Mary The Virgin, Plumtree.

The first reads 'Here lyeth the body of Hannah Lowe ye wife of Georg Lowe who departed this life July ye 20th 1711 in the 66th year of her age'.

To me, this sums up these Vale of Belvoir gravestones perfectly. A fabulous carving of the angel, with errors in lettering and spacing.

The angel, who appears to be frowning, is one of the best that I have seen, with intricate details on the feathers of the wings. A carving of great quality!

When carving the letters though, the letter 'W' in Lowe and Wife more resembles an 'N' and the word departed was started on one line and finished on another.