Martha Tangye

I found this one months ago, and saved it until today to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Martha Tangye. Martha came from the wealthy Quaker family of Tangye, and is buried in Bewdley Quaker Meeting House garden. Her headstone is a mark of a couple of Quaker testimonies, to simplicity and equality. All the headstones are the same style, with a simple recognition of name and dates, thus ensuring the equality after death as in life, to which we aspire. For a long time Quakers shunned headstones as a mark of the world, preferring to be unmarked, but at other times they reverted to this simple style. There are around 300 Quakers buried in a small burial ground, and only around twenty graves are marked. Another aspect of the radical nature of Quakers is the refusal to be buried in consecrated grounds, so not for them the grandness of church yards and cemeteries, but a simple garden or field. Some of the bigger ones, such as Jordans, are quite moving with their rows of simple and identical headstones.
I had intended to photograph this before I went to work, in daylight, but I'm afraid you are getting the cemetery in the dark, which does add a certain dimension. I don't think I disturbed anyone.