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Can anybody please check a grave for me to see whether or not it bears a memorial stone? I have tracked the resting place of my great-grandaunt, Florence Annie YATES, to grave A28 in Section 6 of the burial ground attached to the Inghamite Methodist Chapel in the village of Wheatley Lane (1.5 miles sw of Barrowford in Lancashire). I intend to visit the grave one day soon in order to record the inscription details but would hate to waste a long journey there only to find that there is no gravestone to see. Alternatively, if a transcription of the memorial text can be gleaned from a Monumental Inscriptions compilation then I would be glad to learn of it.

Richard, have you contacted the church to ask them if there is a memorial stone, might be worth trying.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

I haven't contacted them, no, because I can't find a contact address for them. So far as I can tell, the Inghamite Methodist Chapel is a separate institution to the Wesleyan Methodist Church in the same village. If anybody can provide me with a contact address (preferably e-mail) then I will try inquiring directly. The burial ground looks to be quite extensive and so I shall also need to use a site plan to help me pinpoint the grave.

I have just found out that 446 of the headstones in part of this graveyard were transcribed in 1980 and that copies of the Memorial Inscriptions are kept at the libraries in Colne and Nelson. I have e-mailed Nelson Library to ask whether a member of staff there is willing to check to see if Section 6 has had any gravestones transcribed. It's a bit of a long shot though; apparently the graveyard holds about 24,000 burials!! The source for this information is http://www.lfhhs-pendleandburnley.org.u ... htm#Pendle Forest - PEN.Ing.01 and it does in fact give contact addresses for the chapel minister and secretary (not e-mail though), so I'll send a snail-mail enquiry to them soon if anybody elses efforts prove fruitless.

If all else fails LFHHS -- Pendle Group meet at Colne Library--they may have transcribed the headstones. Their contact e-mail address is pendle@lfhhs.org.uk I am sure they will be able to help.
If you are asked how you got the e-mail address--I am a member of LFHHS, it might just help. every little bit does.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

Okay, thanks for your suggestions, Gloria. I'll bear them in mind.

The address for the chapel is

Inghamite Church
Wheatley Lane Road,
Fence,
Burnley,
Lancashire BB12 9QG

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

Thank you for that, Mel. As a matter of fact I have just received confirmation from Nelson Library staff that there is indeed a gravestone for me to see. They have shared with me the transcription details from their copy of the MI and have even attached a scan of the graveyard site plan to help me to pinpoint the plot! So I'm very pleased to know that it won't be a wasted journey for me to actually visit the grave to photograph the inscription. I can key the postcode that you have given into my sat-nav, which ought to save me a bit of time too. It looks like the place is in some nice countryside which of course can make a big difference to how well a visit goes.

It's in a lovely spot. I thought we were lost when we first went as we seemed to drive so far out. No satnav back then.

Will you have to travel far?

Just a thought....how old are the MI's? I'm not aware of any stone clearing at Wheatley Lane but I have had the disappontment in the past of a stone having been removed in years following MI recording at other churchyards

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

That's a good point. The MI was compiled in 1980 so it is quite possible that the gravestone has deteriorated since then. I suppose I would be wise to write to the chapel secretary in advance of a visit, just to be absolutely sure of things. Also, I expect that there might be a lot of grass and brambles obscuring the spot, especially at this time of year. I shall be travelling over the Pennines from the very south of fair Yorkshire, so the journey there and back again will probably take up a whole day. I might try to do it en route to the Lake District when/if the weather has settled down a bit (optimistic, huh?!). Thanks for your interest.

If it is same Minister listed on the lfhhs Burnley and Pendle site then his phone number is on there too. Give him a ring as he is really helpful, lives next to the church and will probably go and check for you. I know when we enquired he arranged to meet us and took us to the graves.

Mo

Yes, I did notice that telephone numbers were given for both the minister and the secretary on the website I mentioned earlier. However, because of my deafness I find conversing by phone can be really longwinded and awkward for me and so I tend to avoid having them as much as possible. Sometimes I ask another person to mediate for me but everybody around me is quite disinterested in my genealogical pursuits and so I would have difficulty in persuading them to do that properly for me. Writing a letter and waiting for a response can tax my patience but is less stressful overall! I would try sending a text message if a mobile phone number had been provided. Anyway, it is reassurring to know that the minister is of a helpful disposition, so thanks for the encouragement. Hopefully, once I've written to him he might respond by e-mail to speed things along a bit.

My mum once phoned to enquire about the burial of my Gt Grandparents and was misinformed....his wife did say that he was holding down a job as well as running the church at the time. When we visited, mum could remember visiting the grave as a girl and felt sure that we were in the wrong spot so she wrote a letter. We received a lovely apologetic reply. He had told us the wrong plot. There were two Thomas and Margaret Sutcliffe's buried there! Mind you, the 'wrong' plot turned out to be a relation too albeit a more distant one. I think we had caught him on the hop when phoning - the joy of a letter is that you can reply when you have time. And it's nice to receive something that is neither a bill or junk mail!! Long live the postal service

I've not been up there for a couple of years but the last time I was there they had been clearing the brambles etc. and it was really a credit to those who must have worked extremely hard. We didn't get very far on our first visit due to the undergrowth (or should that be overgrowth! )

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

The minister there has been THE ONLY ONE!!!!who has ever made any attempt to help me.
Don't ask me to list the other places of worship the list is so,long!

I arranged an appointment with him and arrived and surrounded by a sea of papers, he dug out the ones ( eventually) that gave me the info. I needed.5 star helper in this sometimes frustrating search.

Re. the weeds and brambles. My lot are in the area near the main road, headstones gone and neatly mown.
The older part may be more mossy and slippy in this weather than anything else, but yes it is always wellcared for.

Although I vowed to keep away from cemeteries as long as possible I found myself in close proximity with time to kill.(no pun intended). With the aid of an extremely helpful vicar I can confirm that the grave does have a headstone in very good condition. I have taken photos of the grave and would be willing to e-mail these on via Mel (administrator) or directly to you if you gave her permission to release your e-mail address to me. Plaques.