Category: Death
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St Swithin’s Day
The 15thof July, St Swithin’s Day. The day when we celebrate our favourite historical Bishop of Winchester and plan our umbrella usage for the next…
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Victorian Iron Mummies: The Fisk Casket
Fisk’s patent explains that ‘the air maybe exhausted so completely as entirely to prevent the decay of the contained body on principles well understood; or,…
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Quaker Burial Grounds and City Centre Hermits
Beside the towering shadow of Bristol’s St Mary Redcliffe church, sits an unassuming patch of grass, surrounded by trees and overlooked by an impressively unchanged…
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Sheffield General Cemetery: The Good, The Bad and the Granite
In its relatively small grounds, it boasts ten listed buildings and monuments ‘including Grade II listed catacombs, an Anglican chapel, with the gatehouse, non-conformist chapel…
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Hidden Pre-Raphaelites and Tiny Women at Birmingham Cathedral
In the centre of Birmingham, flanked by pubs and fashionable wine bars, stands a dinky cathedral and a handful of sporadically placed headstones.
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Buried Alive! A short history of premature burial and safety coffins
Taphophobia. The fear of being buried alive. The subject of nightmares since time immemorial. With today’s modern medicine, there’s little chance of these fears becoming…
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In Praise of Death Stationery
Memorial cards were often one of the first indicators of grief and one of the last reminders…
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Hidden Treasures of Arnos Vale – A Visitor’s Perspective
Arnos Vale is simultaneously a working cemetery, a heritage site, a habitat and a veritable art gallery of historical remembrance.
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Elizabeth Siddal – The Exhumed Muse
The 11th February marks the 157th anniversary of Lizzie Siddal’s death. While not exactly a household name, she is an icon, a muse, an artist and…
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Introducing Immortelles
Plastic flowers may last longer, but discolour and weather over time and similarly must be replaced. However, Victorian ‘Immortelles’ (from the French word for ‘everlasting’)…
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The World of Victorian Grave Dolls
After experiencing the death of a loved one, our mourning practises may include collecting mementos…and a full-sized effigy of the deceased.
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A Short History of British Screaming Skulls
While sounding like a high-school punk band, screaming skulls are a not-uncommon element woven through the rich British tapestry of haunted body parts.
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Gravedigging 101
This week on ‘Burials and Beyond’, how to dispose of a body. As much as I’d delight in upholding such a click-bait-y introduction, clarification is…
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Warstone Lane – Birmingham’s Hidden Catacombs
Hidden catacombs, purifying businessmen, sinking graves and a stone family tree… must be Birmingham!
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The Tomb of Sir Christopher Wray at Glentworth
Like many counties, Lincolnshire celebrates an annual open churches festival, in which numerous small villages open their church doors to visitors with a cup of…
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Cemetery Festivities in Finland
As ‘Burials and Beyond’ is first and foremost, a personal blog, I hope you’ll indulge me as I recount my recent experiences in Finland,…
Burials & Beyond 