Joan Ingleton, from Minster, was a gravedigger for almost 20 years

When most people begin looking for a job, they might consider training as a teacher, builder or hairdresser. However, Joan Ingleton chose a rather different path, as she explained to Nick Gutteridge.

For nearly 20 years from the late 1960s onwards, Joan Ingleton worked as Sheppey’s only female grave digger.

Now 75, she admits that her profession of choice left some people bemused.

"It’s just a job," she said. "It kept me fit anyway – I’m a decrepit heap now, but it kept me healthy at the time.

"All different people who saw me said 'Oh, you’re digging a grave'.

"Well, it's what you do if you want a hole – you dig, you get a shovel or a spade or something and dig it.

"I suppose people thought it was odd because I’m a woman."

Mrs Ingleton worked for G. Hogben and Sons, in Hope Street, Sheerness, along with her husband of 54 years Peter, with whom she has three children.

They, along with seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren all still live on the island – none, however, followed her into grave digging.

"They want to earn a living not scratch one," she said.

This throwaway remark is not really representative of a woman who still demonstrates great enthusiasm for a tough job many people would baulk at.

Inevitably, though, there were sad moments too.

"I've buried a baby and I did it all on my own," she said.

"It was stillborn and the mother wanted to know it would have a proper service. It was at Eastchurch and the Reverend was Peter Blagdon-Gamlen.

"He went through the whole service properly and it was lovely – it was so reverent and so beautiful.

"That time with the little baby was very sad because we were on our own. The mother wanted to know that it had a Christian burial, but she didn’t want to know where it was.

"I just thought that was awful – most have people to mourn them. That occasion has always stuck in my mind."

Mrs Ingleton, of Seathorpe Avenue, Minster, was so moved by the episode that she paid her own tribute to the tragic loss of life: "I can’t ever see a grave without flowers on it.

"I hate that, so in this instance I picked a few flowers and made a little posy for the baby. People said, ‘Where did the flowers come from?’ I said I picked them for her."

Joan Ingelton worked for G Hogben and Sons in Sheerness

Despite the ups and downs, she insists she enjoyed her time as a grave digger.

"People say how can you do a job like that but it's quiet, it's beautiful.

"It never occurred to me what I was doing. There's not many people who like the job they do.

"Many people say they hated the job they did but I liked mine – I loved it."