Headstones are not the indestructible objects previous generations might have thought they would be. Lettering comes off and even inscriptions set in stone weather and degrade, in some cases the whole front of a headstone shears off in one sheet. We've all seen small church cemeteries where the gravestones have been moved and set around the churchyard wall or used as paving around the church. In 'The Story of Purton: a collection of notes and hearsay' published in 1919, Ethel Richardson recalls an old song still remembered in the neighbourhood around the turn of the century, but probably much older in origin, and an explanation for the disappearance of at least one village gravestone. The Village Baker Job Jenkins was a baker and A very honest elf, By selling crust and crumbs he made A tidy crust himself, But Job he lived in better days When bills were freely paid, And bakers were thought honest then So bread was never weighed. While walking through the old...