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Nottinghamshire County Council/PA Wire
UK News

Missing monk's tombstone found 100 miles away

by Hannah Tooley

The grave slab dates back to at least 1399 according to historians and was part of the floor of Rufford Abbey's chapel before its demolition in the 1950s.

The slab of Robert de Markham was missing until it was tracked down recently in Wrest Park, Bedfordshire.

It was discovered in one of English Heritage's national collection stores.

Peter Ryder, the archaeologist who identified the missing stonework, was working as part of research into the Southwell and Nottingham Church History Project.

 Nottinghamshire County Council/PA Wire
 Nottinghamshire County Council/PA Wire

Peter Ryder

 He said: "It is one of the best medieval grave slabs in the county, and was in the chapel at Rufford until the 1950s, when Professor Lawrence Butler made a rubbing of it.

"It commemorates Brother Robert Markham 'of this monastery' and is dated 1399, although older accounts had misread the date as 1309 or 1329.

"It is definitely the same slab.

"I think the slab has quite a story to tell - for one thing it is unusual for monks to have as elaborate a memorial as this - and it may be connected with him being from an important family."

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