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Over the entrance to the south porch of the church is a very unusual carved sepulchral monument. It shows a winged hourglass, surmounted by a skull and cross- bones, with wheat growing from the orbits of the skull. A label bears the words ‘Anima resurgat’ (the soul will return), below the design is the inscription ‘mors janua vita’ (Death is the door of life), and on the other side the phrase ‘ut hora- sic vita’ (As the hour so life passes). There are also the initials J. E. and the date 1640. One explanation of the initials is that they refer to a John Elford who at one time lived at Langstone Manor. It is protected by a glass cover which has been there from at least the early 1900s as Crossing mentions its existence in his Guide to Dartmoor.

Sheepstor