I have inherited this cache from Pat, Peter and Terry Thank you for allowing me to adopt the cache- the cache notes are theirs.<
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St Bartholomew's is a busy congregation with a wide variety of activities including social events, home groups and support for mission partners in Tanzania. The small church building, with a seating capacity of approximately 120, is medieval but it was restored and furnished in Victorian times. The North West side of the church may be seen from Desford Road as shown in this photograph of the church, but the entrance is on the South and reached via a footpath on Main Street. It is around 70 foot long with a simple nave, chancel and sanctuary. Much of the building is of white sandstone and gravel with some granite and stone rubble, but the north wall of the nave was rebuilt in 1848-50 in blue Derbyshire stone. Most of the furnishings and internal decoration date from after the restoration of 1848-50.
Alice Band originally detailed the information below on her now archived cache “From Russia with Love” and was given this family history by Robert's elderly descendant who told her his story.
The grounds of the Church still have stones so well preserved that you can see the original tool marks of the Victorian and Georgian stonemasons. Elsewhere in the graveyard some early 18th century stones look like they were placed only recently.
On the gravel path there is a most unusual grave site, as the tomb is actually empty of the person who is inscribed upon the stone.
His name is Robert Gilbert who was born in Kirby Muxloe in 1813 into a poor frame knitting family. As he grew up in an ever expanding family his parents struggled to feed and clothe them all. Seeing an opportunity with a cousin, Robert was sent to Whitby to join the established whaling industry, quite a break from local village tradition. By 18 he was an established whaler. He managed to send money back from time to time to his family, who saved some of it up to pay for a wedding feast as he expressed a wish to marry a local girl on his return from his latest trip in 1834. Sadly, tragedy struck and before Robert could carry out his wish he fell ill from a mystery illness. The crew of his ship managed to take him to nearby land, which in this case happened to be in Russia, where he died and was buried with other British sailors. His family never saw him again. Too poor to pay for the repatriation of his body, his parents used the saved money to pay for a handsome gravestone in memory of Robert, adding his young siblings to the list.
Unfortunately we have no further details of the Brig Barrington of Stockton nor of the town Oronstadt as mentioned on the stone.
While you look for Robert's stone pause briefly at the stone of a Regency traveller on the Hinckley Road (now the A47) - a wealthy Gentleman, he was robbed and murdered on his way home from Leicester - a reminder from the days when travel was a very dangerous business.
Further Information
The First 500 years
Victorian Expansion
Twentieth Century
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