Pinner's Coffin In The Sky inscriptions and Roman numerals

This inscription on the front of the coffin in the sky is hard to read.

You have to translate the date in Roman numerals. Here's a reminder
I 0ne
II Two
III Three
IV Four (five minus one - anything left of five is minus, whilst to the right of the symbol is plus)
V Five
VI Six
VII seven
VIII Eight
IX nine
X ten
XII eleven
L Fifty
C One hundred
D Five hundred
M One thousand
See Wiipedia roman_numerals

Pinner Cemetery and Coffin In The Sky

Photo courtesy of Trevor Sharot.

Here's the coffin in the sky seen from the road in front of the church at the top of Pinner High Street.
You will find an engraved inscription on the front of the coffin which is above the arch. The coffin also projects at the back and another engraving is on the back of the coffin.

The triangular top of the obelisk mimics the gables on the church and the pitched roof of the Lych gate. Though the Lych gate you can see the entrance to the church.

The church is St John The Baptist church.

After you've seen this, you might want to stop for coffee in Pinner. You have several choices. Walk back down the High street. As you descend on your right is Pizza Express, then Starbucks, Carluccio, Café Rouge. Around the corner at the end of the road to the right you will find Caffè Nero, and Caffe Amici in Bridge Street.

Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer and photographer, speaker.

Pinner Church At Sunset, Pinner Churches and Pinner History

Photo courtesy of Trevor Sharot.

This is Pinner church behind L'Orient restaurant at the top of the High Street. The church cemetery has a strange feature, the coffin in the sky, which is to the right of the picture hidden by the restaurant.  The story goes that the Will stopped others receiving money so long as the will-maker was underground. The canny disinherited person(s) buried the deceased above ground in the middle of an obelisk and received their inheritance. You can see the obelisk and the projecting coffin from the pavement outside. The picture is in my next post.

For more information on Pinner's churches and Pinner history see:
pinnerchurches.org.uk
pinnerlhs.org.uk Pinner Local Historical Society
The church pictured has a large hall adjoining it which has been used for activities such as Zumba classes.

Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer and photographer.