IT IS NOT UNCOMMON to see gravestones with inlaid engraved brass images in English churches. Known as ‘monumental brasses’, they began to be used in the 13^th century instead of three-dimensional effigies and images throughout Europe to commemorate the dead. These often-elaborate brasses are set in depressions carved in the tombstones where they are placed.

During a recent visit to the Suffolk village of Long Melford, we wandered around inside its enormous 15^th century Holy Trinity Church. The long side aisles of this edifice are paved with tombstones, many of which have empty depressions where once there had been monumental brasses. A person looking after the church explained to us that long ago, the brasses had been prised out of the gravestones. This had been done both during the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII and later by the puritans. Later, when the church had run low on funds, it sold some to a local blacksmith for what was then a huge amount – about £8 and 10 shillings.

So much for the lost brasses. Fortunately, at the eastern end of the church, several monumental brasses have remained in place – some of them intact, and others damaged. To the south of the high altar, there is a set of intact 17^th century brasses commemorating members of the large Martyn family. Included amongst these brasses are two of particular interest – they are Chrism brasses (see photograph above), which commemorate children who died before their mother was “churched” (that is before the mother has gone to church to give thanks to God for the birth of a child). The Chrism brasses depict babies in swaddling clothes. In addition to these brasses, there is another one depicts a brother and sister. The girl is holding a skull, which means that she died before her parents.

Churches in England, and especially that at Long Melford, offer many fascinating insights into how people lived in the distant past. The brasses – those which have gone and those which remain – are fine examples of history on display.