Churchyard History

Grave of Alan Shanks (marble gravestone with white marble angel up against the churchyard wall to the road

Alan, aged 9, lived in one of the row of cottages  just round the bend at the station end of Coppermill Road near Wraysbury Mill.   In the mid 1950s he was playing in a ditch nearby  when he cut his knee on a piece of rusting metal.  The doctor in Wraysbury stitched up the wound.  But Alan developed  tetanus/sepsis and died.   At the time no one was really aware of tetanus.  

Tree of Heaven  (Ailanthus glandulosa)

The Tree of Heaven in the churchyard was planted in 1973 by Lady Janet  Young of the  Department of the Environment.  The D of E was having a campaign to plant trees, under the slogan "Plant a  tree in seventy three". Lady Young was a cousin of Christie Willatts. He was a senior civil servant there (retired in 1973)

Plant a tree in 73;    

Plant some more in 74

(Keep them alive in 75; 

chop them for sticks in 76).

In a storm in 1971 the great yew tree on the east side of the churchyard path fell down.  It was much bigger than the other yew tree alongside it and its branches swept densely to the ground.  Christie wanted to replace it with a specimen tree and was advised to have a Tree of Heaven (which he thought a suitable name for a churchyard). He was advised that this would be fast growing and resistant to pollution from overhead aircraft. He even travelled to Bath to see a specimen Tree of Heaven there in St James’s Square.  In time both the ashes of his wife Edna d. 1979 and himself d. 2000 were strewn at the foot of this tree.

Iron Crosses

In the period 1890 - 1910   many local foundries made iron crosses, with each foundry having a different design.  In 2023 the St Michael's churchwardens received a number of these which had been removed some decades prior.

A group of volunteers under the guidance of Terry Doe refurbished the crosses and picked out the wording in silver paint.  They also refurbished the Pullen Vault (pictured above) and attached all the crosses to the vault railings.  Access to the vault was probably never considered when the railings were installed (believed to be C1800) and we are relieved no one got injured getting inside!

In 2024 Rosalind Willatts returned another iron cross which her father had removed many years ago and had been in her garage for 24 years. She believed this cross to be the only one left of the many which used to be in made in Foundry Lane Horton as cheap grave markers.  Churchyard mowers would pull them out of the ground to  mow and then return them in any order.  We are hopeful that Terry Doe will be able to refurbish this one too and add it to the collection.

The one from Rosalind is from 1902.  Christie thought it was some distant relation of his, via his grandmother Caroline who lived at Dairy Farm  in Coppermill road.   

There is no evidence that the c 1900 iron crosses were originally painted.  Cast iron made with charcoal  (as the pre industrial revolution ones in the Weald and west midlands)  did not rust, but the Edwardian crosses  would have used coal or coke.   These crosses have endured the weather better than some contemporary stone headstones.