Listed Building record TQ 77 NE 1076 - COMPORT AND BAKER TOMBS 5 YARDS TO SOUTH OF CHURCH OF ST JAMES

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1800 to 1832

Location

Grid reference TQ 7563 7593 (point)
Map sheet TQ77NE
Civil Parish COOLING, MEDWAY, KENT

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
COOLING CP TO 77 NE 2/7 Comport and Baker tombs 5 yards to south of Church of St. James.
GV II
Row of ten childrens' body blocks, with four footstones, and one headstone and three larger body blocks. Early C19. Stone. Insribed to children of the Comport and Baker families. Known locally as 'Pip's Graves' as they are generally taken to have been the prototypes for the graves on the first page of Charles Dickens' 'Great Expectations'.
Listing NGR: TQ7636776264 (1)

This feature is recorded in the English Heritage Historic Area Assessment for Cooling Parish. The report states: "Within the churchyard is a group of 13 body stones around a headstone, the grave of the Comport family; this is widely considered to be the grave described in the opening scene of Charles Dickens 'Great Expectations'. After the church was declared redundant, it and the churchyard were vested in the care of what is now The Churches Conservation Trust in 1978". (2)


<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<2> historic england, 2014, Hoo Peninsula Outline Historic Area Assessment: Cooling Parish. Research Report 51-2014. (Bibliographic reference). SKE31592.

Sources/Archives (2)

  • <1> Map: English Heritage. List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest.
  • <2> Bibliographic reference: historic england. 2014. Hoo Peninsula Outline Historic Area Assessment: Cooling Parish. Research Report 51-2014..

Finds (0)

Protected Status/Designation

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (1)

  • Non-Intrusive Event: Hoo Peninsula Outline Historic Area Assessment: Cooling Parish. Research Report 2014-51 (Ref: Research Report Series 51-2014) (EKE15027)

Record last edited

May 26 2016 10:45AM