"In grateful memory . . . "

Shapwick is about 6 miles as the crow flies from Pimperne: both are in rural Dorset. You could walk it in just over two hours, which is what people were obliged to do at one time. 

Shapwick’s population in 1800 was 409: now below 200. The village is on the River Stour. Until flood defences were built, flooding in the village was a permanent problem. The village was there long before William the Conqueror came to Britain in 1066.

Pennel Kerley from Pimperne in Dorset married Elizabeth Down in Shapwick 11 September 1794. He was 25 she was 21. They lived and died in Shapwick, Pennel on the 5th March 1857 aged 88, Elizabeth two years later on 27 December 1859; she was 86.

In March 1796 their daughter Susanna was born. At the age of 20 she married 26 year old Robert Frampton in Shapwick. He was a carpenter. Their children were Henry Emmanuel, Fanny, Phineas, Susan and George. We know that Framptons had lived in Shapwick since 1675; doubtless for many years before.

Over the years, through marriage, a Kerley became a Frampton, Barfoot, Downe, Mitchell, Masterman, Cuff, Bennett, Short: all within Shapwick. Generation upon generation of bachelors, spinsters, widows, widowers and children, many of whom died young. They would have become as one extended family.

 This their church, St Batholomews, was the focus of many of their comings, joining togethers and goings  

 Their work was as labourers, shepherds, carpenters, cordwainers, servants, wheelers, yeomen, husbandmen, innkeepers.  They died of Scarlet Fever, “a fall from a waggon”, Typhus Fever, “run over by a waggon”, “killed on the spot by a fall from a horse”, “son of Andrew and Emma Kerley died at birth unbaptized”. 

Until, 1914: the start of the Great War.

Added to the base of a medieval cross is the Shapwick War memorial which lists the 43 names of Shapwick men who served during the war. Eleven are Kerleys.  Seven did not return, one of whom was a Kerley.

I was admiring some new thatch on the roof of a cottage not far from the cross.

"They don't spend much on the inside" said the elderley lady occupant. If we weren't protected 'they' would have had us out by now. Get a fortune for it"

"Village is not what it was: no homes for the villagers as used to be. People were born here, lived here all their lives. Now we have places used for holidays by people who don't live here or come from here".

It is a changed and changing world. But, for the elderly lady busy weeding her immaculate garden, and her husband with whom we exchanged a few words, I felt that in this very quiet and pastoral corner of England, the names on the war memorial had achieved something of great importance: the present and future for at least one couple had been safeguarded.

River Stour at White Mill near Shapwick.