THE untold story of a woman who died in Liskeard nearly 150 years ago is being traced after builders discovered her discarded headstone. On Friday morning, builders working on a site at Market Street, Liskeard, uncovered the large headstone of Susanna Edgcumbe as they dug the ground to lay foundations for seven new flats. The headstone is thought to be made from black marble and is around 5ft tall. It was found inscribed-side-down by Mark Jones of Steve Williams ATP Property Ltd under a couple of inches of earth and Cornish slate. 'I wanted to find out what it was because I had to concrete the floor eventually, so I wanted it out,' said Mark. 'I have never come across anything like this before.' As soon as Mark made the discover he told Barry Crabtree, the steward at the Constitutional Club next door to the building site. 'Mark told me to come and look at the thing he had found, and he was really quite excited and a bit nervous about it,' said Mr Crabtree. 'I was astonished when I saw what it was.' Mark admitted being apprehensive about what else would be uncovered as the workmen dug deeper into the ground, although it is very unlikely that the site was used as a burial ground. In fact the clues surrounding the mysterious discovery lie fairly close to home.

Inscription The inscription on the headstone states that Susanna was married to Henry Edgcumbe, a local coal merchant who was working in Moorswater. According to the 1851 census, Susanna and Henry had six children together by the time she died in 1860, four sons Joseph, George, William and James Isaac, his twin Rebecca and sister Sarah. The cemetery on Russell Street in Liskeard contains a headstone bearing Susanna and Henry's names after he died in 1886. By this time, the couple's eldest child, Joseph, was a draper's assistant in Liskeard. In 1903 Joseph's name was recorded as the proprietor of a shop on Market Street where the flats are now being built and where last Friday's revelation was made. It is likely that once Henry died, his name was put on a new headstone with his wife's, meaning that the headstone made for Susanna alone was redundant. If Joseph Edgcumbe buried the headstone under the shop, it is likely to have remained untouched until last week. Local historian and member of the Old Cornwall Society, John Rapson, was particularly keen to find out more about the headstone. 'Edgecumbe is a local name, so it is interesting to discover where it came from,' he said. Alan Taylor, who runs the Edgcumbe Family Genealogy and History Group, believes Henry shared ancestry with the Mount Edgcumbe branch, but that they were not close kin, being descended from different sons of a man who died in 1349. For now, the headstone will remain on site with the builders who are due to finish working on the development.

* Do you have any connections with Susanna Edgcumbe or her family? If you do, contact the Cornish Times Editorial Department at Webb's House, Tindle Suite, The Parade, Liskeard, PL14 6AH.