Category: 20th Century
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Sacrifice and Skeletons at Clophill Church
In 1963, two teenagers were seen playing with a human skull in the middle of the street…
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The Wonderful Cat Man of Cambridge
Walter ‘Snowy’ Farr was a busker unlike any other and has been memorialised in a suitably wild statue.
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Jim Morrison’s Bedroom Shrine
Fans of The Doors created an unofficial – and sometimes unsettling – interactive shrine to their deceased vocalist, Jim Morrison.
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Hidden in Plain Sight: Derby Train Station War Memorial
The plaque found on Platform 1 at Derby Station is dedicated to the staff of the Midland Railway St Mary’s Goods Depot who lost their…
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The Strange Tale of the Gold Leaf Lady
In 1988, a Floridian housewife began producing patches of gold leaf across her face and body…
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The Loveland Frogman
According to local legend, the Loveland Frog was an enormous creature that lived in Loveland, Ohio, measured approximately 4ft tall and walked on two feet.
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The Petrol Station Pet Cemetery
Probably the last place one would expect to find a pretty little pet cemetery is a garage forecourt, but such a site existed in Kent…
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Walter Summerford: The Unluckiest Man in the World
Not only was he struck by lightning multiple times in his life, but once more after his death for good measure.
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The Ghost Clown of Flaybrick Cemetery
‘There’s a clown in my graveyard, what am-ah-gonna-do?’ the people of Birkenhead once yelled in the early 1990s. Or at least they would have done…
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The Weirdest Epitaph in America: Sterling Hallard Bright Drake
“‘An idealist and a dreamer, he died of loneliness and a broken heart, searching for a shrine he never found.”
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“I did not give them willingly”: The Friesthorpe Window
A small rural church in Friesthorpe, Lincolnshire holds one of the most poignant memorials to the sacrifices of war in the form of a beautiful…
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The World’s First Ghost Train
The first Ghost Train on record was not a glitzy Disney invention, but a far more humble, home-grown affair.
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The Mosaic Grave of Rudolf Nureyev
Representative of the dancer’s ‘nomadic life,’ Nureyev’s Kilim rug is a phenomenal memorial to his talent.
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Peppy The Polar Bear: Sweet Treats and Taxidermy
This unassuming clear mint had one of the most bizarre taxidermy-based advertising campaigns of the 20th century.
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The Hexham Heads
In 1971, two young boys were digging in the back garden of their family home in Hexham. Deep in the soil, they unearthed two small…
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“I decided to hide Charlie Chaplin’s body and solve my problems…”
On 12th December 1978, Roman Wardas, a 24-year old Polish refugee took to the stand in Switzerland, accused of stealing Chaplin’s body.
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The Curious World of Dollhouse Graves
Sitting like miniature residences between the headstones, these doll’s house graves are a striking example of non-traditional funerary art and changing ideas of grief, innocence,…
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A Very 90s Death: The Tamagotchi Cemetery
In 1996, Japanese toy designers Aki Maita and Yokoi Akihiro debuted the first ever Tamagotchi.
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The Most Haunted House in England: Borley Rectory
In 1940, psychical investigator and ghost hunter Harry Price produced an account of his stays and studies at Borley Rectory. The book was called ‘The…
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Collection Feature: Ernest Frost
Ernest was a country boy, raised in the fields of Derbyshire, before finding love, achieving a very modern job and dying far too young.
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Thomas Lynn Bradford – Dying for Eternity
Professor Thomas Lynn Bradford died on February 5th, 1921. Afterwards, the world waited for his message.
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The Funeral of Fireman Wale
Fire Constable Arthur Wale lost his life aged 46 in the Derham Boot Factory fire of 1906…
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Collection Feature: Funeral Fans
Cardboard fans, whether folding or attached to a handle, were a particularly popular means of advertisement from the 1920s-60s.
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Stanisława Tomczyk, Medium – Running with Scissors
Tomczyk’s main draw as a medium was her claim that she could levitate objects with the power of her mind, stop clocks and ‘influence the…
Burials & Beyond 