Here are a small collection of 24 memorial cards dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with the earliest dated 1889 and the most recent from 1925. They are mostly for St. Giles' burials, but a few of those commemorated in this way were interred at St. Helen's Church, Darley Dale and there is one person who was buried at Lea. In these cases they or their relatives were from Matlock originally, or had lived in the town for many years.

The cards shown here were mostly folding cards, approximately 3" x 4" in size, with the fold on the left and the opening on the right, though some opened outwards from the centre; there is just one example of this design in the collection. A suitable religious picture and text was on the front, usually surrounded by a black border and enclosed ins another border of a silvery grey (or vice versa). The card opened onto a double page with a short verse or quotation on the left and the name of the deceased and details of their death and burial on the right. This section often also stated the deceased was "the beloved wife/ husband of " or "child/son/daughter of". The backs were blank although there was sometimes a printer's number.

There are also a few that were single cards with no picture; these also had plain backs.

The cards would have been sent to friends, relatives and acquaintances by the bereaved family after the funeral had taken place - the burials are all referred to in the past tense. The card's white envelope with its black border, often thick, would have been unmistakable when it dropped through the letterbox. The main printers in Matlock from 1900 to 1916 were George Hodgkinson of Holt Lane and Henry Roberts of Crown Square.

In this series of images are: Surnames A-B | Surnames C | Surnames D-R | Surnames S-W (this page)