Detailed review by normarl
My mother, sister in law and I made our way up the hill in the market town of Bakewell to the All Saints Church, which housed the Vernon Chapel. Going in we expected to fine the stone markers of Vernon ancestry adorning the walls and the entombment of John and Dorothy Vernon Manners. Instead we found a most intimate small chapel, gorgeous pews, and a beautiful alter highlighted from the stained glass windows above it. We looked all over for the final resting place of John and Dorothy Manners. We did not find them. Not to be deterred we went into a small room just off the chapel and found a very drab classroom for children's church, iron bars at one end with a very large dungeon lock attached to chains looping in and around the middle four bars, and a heavy curtain closing off an obvious area not to be seen. There on the wall to our left was a small sign indicating the Vernon Chapel. Being a bit dismayed, I was surprised that it was so stark and unfriendly, being that these were "my" ancestors that were once occupants of the beautiful Haddon Hall.
But where were the tombs? My sister in law and I allowed that chained, barred and curtained areas must be checked out. It looked from our vantage point that it might be a storage area. There was no sign saying KEEP OUT, No Entrance or No Trespassing. We looked at each other and figured she being on the skinny sort that if she could get over the 5 foot wall, squeeze through the bars and behind the curtain we might find something besides dust, extra pews and books. We looked at each other and without a word decided that she would be the one and I would be the look out. We sent my mother out to the chapel to rest in the dim, quiet solitude of the chapel, at her age of 80 she would not understand the task in which were about to undertake. She believes that my sister in law and I are almost "saints" if it is locked it should remain so and no one should try to enter under any circumstances. She has no spunk and sparkle sometimes.
Over the wall, someone is coming I whispered, she crouched and I continued just looking through Sunday School materials, they left without a word seeing that it was chained and locked. I whispered 'all clear' and like a flash she was through the bar. She was up against the very heavy curtain, parting it she entered and gasp. She held the curtain open a bit and as I peered I began to cry with excitement. There was the tomb and other monuments of John and Dorothy Manners. She took pictures, then we exchanged cameras and she took more. Someone's coming I said, she crouched down behind the curtain between some broken benches and the base of the tomb until they left. It seemed like a fortnight before that were gone. They just kept looking around like something was 'amiss'.
Pictures taken, I am sure, of things that were not to be photographed, all that was left to do was get out, rescue Mum, leave a £ or 3 for upkeep, because those curtains sure were very dusty and return our sight seeing. "Not so fast", she calls sounding unsettling, she finds it is not as easy escaping as entering. After much wiggling and louder noises she finally exits and enters the chapel. We decide that we might need to ask for some sort of forgiveness for our trespasses, no pun intended, before we leave the solitude of the that beautiful church, upon reflecting we decide that an extra £ more than the 3 would be in order.
Mum is not quite sure what has taken place and certainly none the wiser about her daughter in law's indegressions and she says she will leave 3 £s--one for the each of us in appreciation and thanks. 7 £s do ya think that is enough? Not!
All Saints Church10
