About 20 years ago I happened to be walking in the village of Leigh, so went into the churchyard to examine the gravestones.
On the left, near the fence, I found a headstone erected, 'By a grateful employer in memory of his young shepherd, who died trying to save his master's flock from the flooded Leigh brook'. This was erected at the end of the Victorian era.
I am not sure if the wording above is correct, but I have often thought about that young man. A brook through an English village is a wonderful place for children to play but, in times of flood, can be a killer.
Five years ago, when I took my wife to a flower festival at Leigh Church, that headstone was still there and visible, although the lady volunteers were unaware of its presence.
Recently, I took a visitor from overseas to see the grave site and it was not where I remembered it; gravestones had been moved, understandably, to make grass-cutting easier. Usually, these are placed where they can be viewed, and I wondered if that gravestone could be located.
It would be a pity if the memory of that young man is lost for ever.
STANLEY COMPTON, Orchard Lane, Ledbury.
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