Sprouston Parish Church, Burial Ground

The graveyard surrounding Sprouston Parish Church was walled in 1814, and contains a number of stones that illustrate the long history of religious worship and commemoration at this site.

About 15m south of the church lie stones which made up the remains of a cross shaft and its base, dating from the medieval period. Headstones date back to at least 1704, although a number of weathered, illegible stones may well be older than this.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

NT73NE 11.01 centred 75680 35300

Among the memorials in the churchyard the following may be noted:

(1) The lower part of a cross-shaft inserted in a stone base (RCAHMS 1956 fig.406). The base measures 2ft 2 1/2in by 2ft by 9in in height; the shaft, where it enters its socket, measures 1ft 4in by 9in and it stands 2ft above the top of the base. Its upper end is fractured, and its E face has been cut away to form a slightly sloping surface on which the initials A T H have been cut in modern times.

(2) A headstone commemorating JAMES DICKSONE, TAILZER IN SPROUSTOUN, who died in 1707.

(3) A headstone on which the date 1704 can be read although the name of the person commemorated is illegible.

The stones in this churchyard are, in general, very badly weathered, and some of the numerous illegible ones may well date from before 1707. Preserved in the manse is a funeral hand-bell of bronze inscribed, in raised letters, MR WM BAXTER 1728 / IAS EDGAR FECIT.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 15 March 1945, 26 April 1952.