MySource:Hywelilltyd/Friends of St Illtyd Grave Survey

In late 2019 the Friends of St Illtyd initiated a project to photograph all the extant gravestones in the churchyard of St Illtyd’s and to plot them on an interactive map, which would be searchable by name of grave occupants. The reason for doing this was two-fold: firstly, to provide a user-friendly accessible resource for people researching their family histories; and secondly, to make a visual record of an important element of local heritage that is gradually but inexorably disappearing. The churchyard at St Illtyd’s is in an exposed position and the gravestones are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of the weather, which has already led to severe damage to, and, in many cases, total loss of the inscriptions on the headstones. The Friends felt that it was imperative that a visual record be made before any more were lost. These gravestones provide a trove of often fascinating details which throw important light on the social history of the area, with much information to be gleaned that cannot be found via other sources.

It should be noted that this is not quite yet a fully complete record, as quite a number of headstones were very overgrown by vegetation so couldn’t be photographed (due to Covid, the annual cutting back of the vegetation in the churchyard didn’t happen this year). Additions to the map will be made as and when previously obscured headstones are revealed in future.

It should also be noted that there are a number of gravestones photographed and plotted on the map that have no readable inscriptions; these are described as ‘Unknown’, but they are still of interest for the record.

December 2020