Oxfordshire Graves and Gravestones

Our ancestors’ effigies, portraits in brass and monumental inscriptions are one of the few ways in which humans can find some sort of immortality, and indeed provide a form of contact between the living and the dead. Oxfordshire resting places are marked in a variety of ways and many are works of art in their own right, providing information on birth and death dates and, in the case of those with portraits, more intimate details such as hairstyle and fashion sense. Among the gravestones featured here are those commemorating politicians, academics, soldiers, artists, poets and writers, as well as some more unusual people, including the first English balloonist, the soldier who fired the first shot at Waterloo, and a Maori lady. Local author Marilyn Yurdan takes the reader on a tour of the county’s graveyards, including the largest Anglo-Saxon cemetery in England and a Medieval Jewish cemetery under Oxford Botanic Garden, and reveals the poignant, humorous, and sometimes gruesome history behind Oxfordshire’s graves and gravestones.