Until comparatively recently – that
is, the last few decades of the 19th century – only the wealthy
could afford to be buried in coffins, and have tombstones.
The majority of corpses were wrapped in cloth and laid directly
in the earth.
Beneath the church are two vaults, which
have long been sealed up, in which those who could afford to pay
were buried; one was the Manor vault and the other the Town vault.
There also appear to have been some burials beneath the floor of
the church.
Around the church was an area of consecrated
ground where the bodies were buried, and this has been extended
gradually over a period of years until the middle of the last century.
The earliest tombstones that can be read are to be found at the
northwest part of the churchyard and date from the middle of the
eighteenth century. The latest date on a gravestone is 1952.
Percy Towell, a keen local historian,
made the earliest list of tombstones in 1935. The survey was updated
in 1984 by Patricia Counsell and the information on this
website is taken from her book, published in 1986 by The Teddington
Society, entitled “A Survey of Inscriptions in the Church
and Churchyard of St Mary with St Alban Teddington, Middlesex”.
We are in the process of transferring
this information onto the website but due to the volume of records
it has not yet been completed. In the meantime, for more information,
please contact the webmaster.
The list of memorials within the church
was compiled in 1981 by Patricia Counsell, and included in her
book, published in 1986 by The Teddington Society, entitled A
Survey of Inscriptions in the Church and Churchyard of St Mary
with St Alban Teddington, Middlesex. For more information,
please contact the webmaster.
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