Old St Helen's, Ore

Old St Helen's church, Ore and the Castle are the oldest extant buildings in Hastings. Our Victorian ancestors took the roof off St Helen's and removed much of the stone and built themselves a nice, cosy Victorian church higher up the hill- the bastards! St Helen's was founded by King Offa of Mercia- the man with the dyke- after he'd defeated the Hastingiae in 771. The existing fabric is Norman and most periods thereafter. Archaeologists dug the site and found a Saxon coin, some rather nice medieval tiles and a lot of dead people.

I turned up to find another photographer already in possession. He was a professional. He had a tripod. I waved my dinky digital camera at him and claimed kinship. Anyway, we had a nice chat. He said he does churches and suchlike for fun- and makes a living "photographing drunks"- ie high profile weddings and 21st birthdays- which is also fun. "Celebrities in bunny ears," he reminisced. We shared an enthusiasm for gravestones- about which I discovered I knew more than he.

Gravestone In Ore

Sacred to the memory of Jean beloved wife of Henry Earley Wyatt, died 1852 aged 47.

My flesh shall slumber under ground
Till the last trumpet's signal sound
Then burst my chains with sweet surprise
And in my Saviour's image rise.

(I don't think "signal" is right but it scans and I can't think what else it might be.)

Slate gravestones are rare in the South East.

P.S. It's "joyful" not "signal". I thought to google it on the off chance that it wasn't composed by the local schoolmaster and it turns out to be a verse from a hymn by Isaac Watts- which, in its turn, is a metrical version of Psalm XVII