Category: Taphophile
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The Everyday Heroes of Postman’s Park
Postman’s Park holds a series of beautiful memorials to Londoners who lost their lives committing heroic acts.
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Let’s Visit a Finnish Plague Park
‘Ruttopuisto’ means ‘plague park’, and is the final resting place of thousands of Finns who died in the great plague of 1710.
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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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The Roadside Grave of Betsy Smith, Kenilworth
The dead are everywhere. You can’t avoid them. Under city buildings and railway lines, gardens and churches. As centuries pass, memorials are removed, with the…
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The Shoe Grave of Buster Brown
“Hi, I’m Buster Brown; I live in a shoe. This is my dog, he lives there too!”
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The Last Witch of Scotland
What may seem to be a simple piece of masonry is in fact the memorial to the most brutal and hysterical of executions.
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Hunting for Mary Wollstonecraft’s Grave
Today the Wollstonecraft/Godwin grave survives as an unassuming block of stone beside far grander memorials…
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The Hardy Tree
The Hardy Tree is a centuries-old ash tree surrounded by a radiating circle of densely-packed headstones. But why was it created?
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London’s Secret Victorian Pet Cemetery
Hyde Park’s hidden pet cemetery’s once described as ‘the most horrible spectacle in Britain.’
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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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Going Out in Style! Ghana’s Fantasy Coffins
Fantasy, figurative or proverbial coffins (abebuu adekai), are unusual, transient memorials, being elaborate representations of the deceased’s interests, dreams and achievements.
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Whitby’s Hidden Quaker Burial Ground
Whitby’s Quaker burial ground is impressively well hidden. To most passers-by, it looks like a garden extension to some of the more grander Georgian houses…
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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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The Grave of Clasped Hands: Love Conquering Death
It’s a twee little statement that love can conquer death, but one that rings romantically true in the adjoining graves of a Dutch Colonel and…
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Louth Cemetery: Thinking Local
Louth Cemetery, servicing a small market town, holds as much awe and history as any city burial ground.
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A Trip to Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery is a sprawling necropolis, nestled in the busy – and terribly posh – London Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
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A Day at Greenbank Cemetery, Bristol.
Greenbank is a large Victorian Garden cemetery, but like so many others, has suffered from years of neglect.
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Cleethorpes Cemetery: Seafarers and Odd Fellows
Sitting in 31 acres, just off Beacon Avenue, Cleethorpes Cemetery opened in 1877 and is one of four cemeteries serving the Grimsby and Cleethorpes area.
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Birdcage Walk: Remnants of a Bombed Churchyard
While the church is long gone, its churchyard remains, with tombs and monuments hidden behind metal railings and overgrown bushes. Although the site seems closed…
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A Day at Southampton Old Cemetery
Southampton Old Cemetery is a historical site, a nature reserve, a place for tours and relaxation. Its also a place to dodge dog poo by…
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Stacked Headstones and Forgotten Burials : St Mary’s Old Cemetery, Louth
Nestled between a small car park and a bridge over the river Lud, sits an old, sparse burial ground, dating back to the 13th Century.
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More Adventures in Highgate East!
Between pianos, dogs, and enormous mausoleums, cemeteries such as Highgate hold thousands of stories and works of art around every corner.
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Adventures in Highgate West Cemetery
The self-titled ‘magnificent seven’, is the informal name given to a group of large, privately-owned Victorian cemeteries within London. One of these is Highgate. Between…
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The Yew: Tree of the Dead
While flora and fauna in cemeteries is a fascinating topic of its own, today’s post will just be focusing on one. The granddaddy of all…
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Poppyland – Churchyard Treats in the Heart of Norfolk
When travelling through the Norfolk countryside, if you were to stop at every church you passed, you’d be forced to invest in property and inform…
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Grieving Angels and Tudor Tragedies at St Andrew’s Church, Blickling.
However, in my experience, I have found so many of these tiny parish churches filled to the rafters with historical artefacts, sculptures, artwork and more…
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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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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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Nottingham Rock Cemetery and the Doubtful Catacombs of Robin Hood
…this large pit can be seen from above as a 20ft sheer drop, and a health and safety nightmare. Previously, this hollow was open to…
Burials & Beyond 