Ian Shipley 
Tales of a Gravedigger 

Ian Shipley has now been traditionally hand-digging graves for 40 years. He was taught to dig the old-fashioned way. Four decades on, averaging 114 graves per year, Ian can still be found habitually toiling away in one of any number of locations across Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. In `Tales of a Gravedigger`, the author’s first book, he recalls true tales from his early years whilst working at Newark’s London Road Cemetery in Nottinghamshire. It is a light-hearted and occasional amusing look into the life of a gravedigger. From coffins getting stuck to stomach churning exhumations. From unexpected cave-ins to practical jokes and various other ghostly goings-on. It’s an interesting glimpse into a profession that most of us know very little about. Ian has always believed that a grave should be hand-dug. It’s more personal that way. For years he has declined to use mechanical digging, preferring instead to keep alive the old ways. In Newark-on-Trent and throughout the surrounding villages of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, Ian will possibly be the last of the traditional gravediggers.