Country diary: hand-chiselled headstones speak in rural accents

Hamsterley, Weardale, Durham As the centuries passed, the memorials in the village churchyard became more formal and decorative, less idiosyncratic

There has been a place of worship on this spot since 1180 but no one seems to know why St James' church was founded on this hillside half a mile from the village. "Man fleeth as it were a passing shadow," cautions the sundial above the porch. Perhaps the grandeur of the rising sun, as I watched it lifting deep shadows from the valley cut by the river Wear, moved its founders to build here.

I wandered around the churchyard, reading names on tombstones carved by stonemasons whose own identities have long since been forgotten.