

Operated by East Boldre Community Stores Limited.
Community Benefit Society, number 8481

GEORGE MILLER
LYDIA MILLER
ISAAC MILLER
Reflectance Transformation Imagery
SACRED
to the Memory of
GEORGE MILLER
who departed this life
Feb 23rd 1845
Aged 70
--
ALSO OF LYDIA...
who departed this life
March xx 1846
Aged 74 Years
--
AND OF ISAAC, THEIR SON
who died in London
Oct 30th 1845
Aged 41 Years
--
"As we have borne the image of the earthly
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Cor. XV.49

This gravestone had broken and initially appeared to be two separate gravestones. RTI imaging was carried out on this basis which is why the images (right) are not complete. The top part was partially buried and the lower part was lying behind the other headstones.
It was only when researching the biographies of the individuals that we realised they were originally one. This was confirmed as the width of the two stones was the same) and the groove detail inset from the edges aligned. The break along the bottom edge of the top part cleanly matched the break on the lower part. Thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the two parts have now been re-united as a single gravestone by Colin Avery, an expert in gravestone restoration.
George Miller was born in 1776 to Robert and Elizabeth (nee Phillips) who lived in Beaulieu parish, the eldest of their six children. George was baptised at Beaulieu church in 1777 by Richard Burleigh.
Lydia Tinsley was born in 1770 to Isaac and Elizabeth (nee Cousens). She was baptised on 16th December 1770 in Bishops Waltham. In 1791 she married John Peckham on 6th December 1791 in Alverstoke and they had a son Joseph in 1795.
Lydia, recently widowed, married George at Beaulieu church in 1797 and they had eight children. The Rev Comyn's notebooks (circa 1817) list the couple as dissenters (Baptists) living at the property now called Old Tinsleys (named for Lydia's family).
The 1841 census shows Lydia and George, an agricultural labourer, lived in Beaulieu Rails with their 20 year old, youngest son Jacob.
George was buried by the Rev John Bartlett Burt at the chapel on 28th Feb 1845.
Lydia died in March 1846 and was buried there by William Mursell on the 20th March 1846.
Isaac Miller was the 3rd of George and Lydia’s eight children. He was baptised on 11th March 1804 at Beaulieu church. Isaac married Ann Westbrook, a widow, at St. George the Martyr in Southwark in 1837. The 1841 census shows them living in Lyndhurst with her three daughters from her previous marriage.
Isaac's death was registered in St Pancras in 1845.
3D photogrammetry models (above)
The two parts of the headstone reunited after repair by Colin Avery a stonemason specialising in restoration.