Cemetery Destruction

Earlier this year, I visited a cemetery in the north of England which was said to contain a small garden of remembrance to the patients who had died while being guests at the County Asylum. Evidently, four statues stood at a cardinal compass point and were named by the seasons.


What I saw sickened me as I did not know that the memorial had been trashed by vandals. In 2008, vandals destroyed the magnificent garden of remembrance memorial, including its four statues - fragments of which lie on the ground - other parts lie in a heap of rubble next to one of two chapels - equally badly damaged. Two halves of a stone font that was toppled and broken in two lie next to the other chapel. It upsets me every time I look at the photographs.


My research revealed that a number of local youths were later charged by the police, but I can find no record of their sentencing. 

It is know that 995 former patients were buried here - each marked by a memorial or headstone - but, after the local health authority sold the cemetery to developers in 1993, the headstones were taken away. I am still trying to discover what happened to them, but it is likely they were broken up for crazy-paving or crushed for use as hardcore. Three headstones escaped this and lean against a boundary fence alongside. I just cannot fathom why historic headstones could be disposed of like that. What a terrible thing to do!

The developers had the idea of using part of the area for woodland burials and renamed it Ribble Valley Remembrance Park. It has since been sold on.

Beyond the mostly barren plot, lies the Whalley (Queen Mary's Hospital) Military Cemetery. During the First World War, the 2,000 bed Queen Mary's Military Hospital was housed in the County Asylum at Whalley, remaining there until June 1920.

Here is a link to my Flickr set showing all the photographs I took that day - click HERE.

Who Will Remember Them?

As I go round cemeteries in England, it is starting to dawn on me just how many headstones have decayed to the point where the deceased is about to become unknown. I know willing bands of volunteers have been visiting cemeteries for years to record the monumental inscriptions before it is too late. But, they can't get everywhere! Here are a few examples of what I mean.

Hurst Green Cemetery 2011

Locksbrook Cemetery Bath 2010

Chorley Cemetery 2011

American Headstone

A recent aquisition from America was a glass plate negative of a grave in an unknown cemetery. I estimate it to date from about 1900 and made a scan from it this evening. The name John E. Gibbs can clearly be read on the headstone which looks brand new. A sign to the left of the stone has the letters NB above VFA on it. Perhaps that means something to North American students of funerary architecture? Fascinatingly, a small plaque to the right reads 'Perpetual Care'. I wonder if the headstone has been crafted from Vermont Marble? I am intrigued by the white stone borders which seem to separate the plots as far as the eye can see. Comments are most welcome! Click twice on the image for a close up look!

Tomb at centre of Victorian Poisoning Allegation

Lt General George Dick

This first photograph from my visit to Abbey Cemetery in Bath shows the tomb of Lieutenant General George Dick with its distinctive red cross. Dick's was the third burial to take place in the cemetery which opened in 1844. He lived with his two daughters in Bath and after his death, his son, George sailed home from India to find he had been cut out of the general's new will, written shortly before his death.

An unsightly spat took place with allegation and counter allegation appearing in the local newspapers. When George accused his sisters of poisoning their father, an exhumation was arranged. Two coroners, solicitors and doctors and a jury attended, as did the general's butler who had the unpleasant task of identifying the body. The tomb was removed and the lead coffin recovered to the cemetery's chapel where a post mortem was carried out. There was much surprise at how little decomposition had occurred in the seventeen months since General Dick was buried.

The next day, an inquest heard that there was inflammation in Dick's digestive tract. Was it caused by arsenic, prussic acid or strychnine? The jury couldn't decide, returning a verdict of death from inflamed stomach and bowels, but with no evidence to show how. The press quickly lost interest, George returned to Calcutta and his sisters retired to Devonshire. The general's body was reinterred and remains undisturbed to this day.