On 12th December 1978, Roman Wardas, a 24-year old Polish refugee took to the stand in Switzerland, accused of stealing Chaplin’s body.
“I decided to hide Charlie Chaplin’s body and solve my problems…”
Tag: Burials
Hudds, Huds and Hudes: Graveside Shelters of Yesteryear
Shelters may seem to have been a rather excessive addition to the world of ecclesiastical furniture, after all; what’s a little rain between a vicar and a coffin?
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 cemetery trees, the yew.
Timothy Clark Smith: The Grave With a Window
Instead of considering glass coffins and mausoleums, physician Timothy Clark Smith had rather more practical ideas...
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 your family of your permeant change of residence. In short, it would take an age.
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 fascinating headstones than you can shake a sensible walking shoe at.
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, if preferred, the coffin may be filled with any gas or fluid having the property of preventing putrefaction.’
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 1980s bar.
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 and the Egyptian Gateway, each listed at Grade II.’ It also holds the largest single grave plot in the country, holding the bodies of 96 poor residents.
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.
