Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

I was wondering does anyone know what 2BR or 3BR means on the top of an old gravestone. A lot of my ancestors were buried in St Chad's Kirkby and a lot of their headstones have either 2BR or 3BR on the top of them. Does anyone know what this might stand for?

Many thanks

Could it be section number? have you had a look in the buriel records for St Chads at Liverpool

I have no idea what the numbers mean on the headstone, but there is a website for St Chads.

http://www.stchadskirkby.110mb.com/

Jan

This could be the plot or row number

I was thinking that but then there are plots all over the cemetery with the same inscription on it.

I have a vague idea it's something to do with breadths meaning how many people or how wide theplot is but I wouldn't swear to it!

Hilary
Ed Officer

I am sure it means 2 Breadths. Many cemetaries use the same notation. It determines how many bodies can be buried in the grave. Best wishes Jim.

Perhaps it means 'two buried' or 'three buried'. Not an idle comment, as I was surprised to find that many of the graves I was trying to locate for one person, in fact contained four family members in total.
Lorraine Daly, Qld. Australia.

Nothing like going directly to the person who might know the answer, so I telephoned the Rector who was very helpful. This has been a matter that has been discussed by them but although they do not have a definite answer they believe that, as this mark is on many of the much older graves, and perhaps before proper records were kept, it was to mark how many burials had taken place in that particular grave.

All of St Chads allowed for three, so this mark was presumably put there after a second or third burial when the inscription was being done.