Belvoir Angel Gravestone

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

I'd never heard of a Belvoir Angel gravestone until the other day when someone posted a picture in an fb group. Instantly it made me think of a gravestone to my 6th great grandmother Mary Goulson at Ropsley so I added an image and bingo, it's got the angel on it. They were only carved for a period of about 70-80 years (late 1600's to mid 1700's), and there were around 320-330 located during a survey in the 1970's.

One was found at Ropsley in Lincs though somehow the stone to Mary was missed at the time. She married her husband at Upper Broughton which has a total of 34 Belvoir Angel stones (the largest known number anywhere).

Belvoir Angels | Hickling Local History Group (hicklingnottslocalhistory.com)

Mary Goulson (Mary Page), Ropsley, Lincs. by Glen Jones, on Flickr

[herky]

What a lovely clear gravestone. Have never heard of these stones either but not surprising as I don't have family in that area.
Thanks for the link - interesting to read how they were carved - sort of in reverse - perhaps that is why the wording is so clear.

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

That and the stone that's used, it seems to weather well over the years.

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

It seems that the Heathcote survey in the 1970's missed the stone to Mary but did find the nearby stone to Henry Pickwell a few yards away. The Pickwell stone, together with a number of BA stones in other churchyards have been given GradeII listed status. I can only guess the reason Mary's stone was missed in the 1970's is that it is right next to the church, hiding in plain sight. As it was missed from the survey and effectively unknown it then missed listing by Historic England. So today I put forward a request for it to be listed, maybe it will, maybe it won't, I'll just have to wait and see.