Belchamp Walter today

Belchamp Walter's recent history

This page needs some editing

Research on this website relating to the village of Belchamp Walter have been taken from news items and the accounts of those that live or have lived in the community.

Word of mouth

These are accounts that have been recorded from conversations with local residents. There is a lot of scope here and there are many in the Belchamp Walter community that can add to this.

Some of the conversations that I have had are those relating to the remains of footings of buildings that were burnt as a consequence of the Black Death and the grave robbings from cemeteries in the area.

The author suspects that the stories relating to grave robbing in Belchamp Walter are a confusion with the events reported from Foxearth. The remains of the body of the late Samuel Vial, Esq. being exhumed.

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After spending some time in researching those that are buried in the churchyards of St. Mary, Belchamp Walter church, I was reminded of a story that I had related to me by one of the current residents of the village. This story related to "Grave Robbers" and whether they had dug up graves in our churchyard.

It is my belief that this is not true and the origin of this story need to be made clear. I can find no evidence that there were any such activities at Belchamp Walter or in any of the surrounding villages. While there may have been desecration of grave yards in some parts of the country it is my belief that this is more likely to be at large centers of population where there was a shortage of cadavers for medical experimentation.

I have quoted the article from the Foxearth and District Local History Society's website and their article "Sacrilege and Body-stealing". If you want to read the complete article I urge you to visit their website.

Foxearth & District Local History Society

Sacrilege and Body-stealing

The note below is from the introduction of the story about the Body-stealing from an article publishd in the Suffolk Free Press in 1864.

The following are extracts from the Suffolk Free Press from 1864, recording the curious tale of the disappearing corpse from Foxearth Graveyard. This scandal would have been the talk of the parish for many months. The story is self-explanatory and needs no embellishment or explanation from us

The article:

July 14th. 1864.
Burial of the dead at Foxearth.

Refusal of the rector to permit the disinterment of a body.

This rural parish was throughout the day on Wednesday last, the scene of unusal excitement, arising from proceedings taken and preparations made for the disinterment and the remains of the body of the late Samuel Vial, Esq. The matter will perhaps be understood by a short recital of the circumstances connected with the grave anterior to Wednesday's proceedings.

It appears that the late Samuel Vial, who was a wealthy Landowner and Farmer, residing in the adjoining parish of Cavendish, died on 23rd. of Sept. 1855, then leaving two sons and a daughter(married), and it is alleged on one side, but contradicted on the other,that on his death bed he desired to be buried in Foxearth Churchyard,but whether so or not,he was buried there, and soon after a dispute arose between the deceased's friends and the Rector (REV. JOHN FOSTER) with reference to a tombstone or memorial to be erected, as they wished to erect over his remains. The incumbent states that the proposed monument was a column surmounted by a wheatsheaf, the whole to be surrounded by a railing, and he therefore objected, considering it unsuitable; he was then threatened with proceedings in the ecclesiastical court, and a correspondence ensued, but ultimately a simple tombstone was erected. When the late Mrs.Vial died her sons wished her to be buried alongside their father, to this Mr. Foster consented, although she was not a parishioner at the time of her death, on condition that a written agreement was given that they would not erect any tombstone until the design had first been submitted and met with his approval.

Belchamp Walter's recent history

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