What Does This Mean?

[Just Kia]

I noticed a significant number of gravestones have a much smaller one placed infront.
In one churchyard there was a whole row that were like this. Unfortunately they were very old and unreadable (would a stone rubbing reveal any info?)

Is there any significance to gravestones like this?
Could they be mother and child? I know death in childbirth was far from unusual in the 1700's 1800's

Would it be when a spouse was added to the grave of their loved one?

It's not just a shorter stone - like a footstone, it's a smaller but similar shaped stone as the larger one. The weathering is identical.

I did notice some have had plain stones (roughly rectangular) inserted behind for support, but this has happened at a much later date judging by the weathering.

At one point we discovered a set of 4 all one in front of the other with an inch or so of clearance between them, each one slightly smaller than the one behind it.

[trish251]

I have found a number of family graves with small additional gravestones place in front of the original memorial. For mine it has always been an additional person buried within the grave. I have assumed the families found this to be cheaper as opposed to adding an inscription to the original stone.

Thus said, I have never noticed a complete row or group of graves that were all similar. As there are no non indigenous graves in Australia more than 220 years old & most that I have seen have been considerably less than this - they have legible inscriptions. Some, that I have seen, but not all were children.

Trish

[Ruskie]

Oh yes, I've noticed these too. I've not seen any names engraved on them though. I'll be interested to discover what they are.

[Nick29]

I was talking to an elderly cousin yesterday, and she told me that it was common practice for still-born children to be placed in the same coffin as someone else in the village who was due to be buried.  I don't know if this is true, but if it is, maybe it's something to do with that ?   I've seen these little stones myself, and some have appeared to have initials on them.

[Just Kia]

Cheers Nick =) That's quite an interesting tidbit. I'm curious to look further into that.

[Guy Etchells]

The small stones are normally footstones removed to allow mechanical mowing.
It used to be common practice to mark a grave with both a headstone and a footstone. This helped stop the remains being chopped when a later grave was opened in the next row.
With the advent of mechanical mowing footstone and even kerbstones were removed to allow access for the mowers.
Cheers
Guy

[Lydart]

I think she means a small stone right up against the normal headstone, not the footstone.  I've got a photo of one somewhere ... but do you think I can find it ?   

[Dancing Master]

Even in the 1940's stillborn children were put into coffins with people they were unrelated to.  My own sister was one of those.

As they had never taken a breath they were not deemed to have ever lived so disposed of in alternative ways.

[Guy Etchells]

I think she means a small stone right up against the normal headstone, not the footstone.  I've got a photo of one somewhere ... but do you think I can find it ?   

Yes I realise that, in many cases they were laid against the headstone when removed from the foot of the grave, in other cases they were simply disposed of.
Sometimes they could be found thrown in the base of a hedge or some other out of the way spot which would not interfer with the mowers.
Cheers
Guy