Bawdeswell – All Saints’ Church (Grave of Edward Peterson from 1733)

I am completely puzzled by this and although my being confused isn’t rare, I can’t really understand what has happened here. There is the oldest grave that I can recall seeing in a Norfolk churchyard and it commemorates the life of Edward Peterson who died in 1733. All Saints’ Church has an odd history as it effectively fell down in 1739 and was rebuilt, before a plane crashed into it during the Second World War and it was entirely rebuilt once again (and not to mention the Victorian rebuilding). This gravestone shouldn’t really have survived for so long, so it seems likely that there are some special circumstances that apply here. I’ve sent Google Gemini on a long mission to find a solution, but it has come back without any documented evidence, just its best guess.

The gravestones were moved in the late Victorian period, so I can only assume that the gravestone had been in a protected area until then. Perhaps it moved position during that time to tidy the churchyard up and it has just been made from a sturdy limestone that has protected it, but it has also certainly been moved since the plane crash in 1944 which destroyed the church so it’s likely been in a few locations over the centuries. But, it’s relatively rare to find gravestones from the eighteenth century, let alone one so early on in the century. However, Google Gemini has tried to consider all possibilities, even mentioning:

“The general environmental conditions of Bawdeswell, situated in East Anglia, involve a temperate maritime climate with moderate rainfall and seasonal temperature variations that include regular frosts in winter. This provides the overarching weathering regime. Historically, as a rural village, Bawdeswell would likely have experienced lower levels of atmospheric pollution compared to industrial urban centres during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.”

And it suggested a very real possibility that:

“Burial, particularly in well-drained soil, can offer significant protection from atmospheric weathering agents such as acid rain, freeze-thaw cycles, direct solar radiation and the colonisation of surface-dwelling organisms. If the Petersen stone was subsequently uncovered and re-erected during one of the churchyard clearings or the formal re-laying of memorials 11, it would likely have emerged in a considerably better state of preservation than if it had remained continuously exposed for the entirety of its existence. This period of unintentional interment could be a crucial, albeit undocumented, factor in its current condition.”

Or, maybe, the gravestone was even inside for a period, although this feels unlikely. A little of Edward life is known, he was born in 1658, the son of William Peterson and Margaret Peterson, and he was baptised at Hackford with Whitwell Church on 9 April 1658. He died on 11 February 1732, but the year discrepancy on his gravestone is likely because the burial is so early it dates back to a period when the year end was late March and not December. Anyway, I suspect that his gravestone was made of high quality limestone, it’s been protected in some form and it has been fortunate to have been placed in well drained areas. But it intrigued me by being quite so old….