For many years worshippers visiting St Mary’s Church in Edwinstowe have walked on the
grave slabs laid on the floor, and probably given little or no thought to the person/persons
laid to rest. That is until a recent visitor deciphered the partly worn Latin inscription on one
of the slabs. Apparently, the tomb was for Margaret, wife of William Hayes, who died in
1670 aged 23 years. Curiously in the bottom right-hand corner of the slab is the imprint of
a horseshoe. The Society’s researchers discovered reference in the church register indicating
that at that time there was a family in Clipstone with the same name, and whose abode
was the slitting mill, at Clipstone. (A slitting mill was a watermill for slitting bars of iron into
rods, which were then passed to nailers and subsequently turned into nails with a point and
head. Horseshoes and implements were also produced.) The conclusion is that the
horseshoe in the floor is probably a symbol of the forge and slitting mill.