Tag: Graves
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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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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 Car Park Grave of Mary Ellis
Beneath the tarmac of Loews Theater car park in New Brunswick lie the remains of Mary Ellis. For the last 193 years, she has occupied…
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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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Ye Olde Eco-Burial: The Trapdoor Coffin
In the 16th and 17th centuries, plenty of rural parishes in Scotland utilised a communal coffin of sorts called a ‘common mortkist’, ‘bier’ or ‘parish…
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Nanette Stocker, the Smallest Woman in the Kingdom
Nanette (incorrectly recorded as ‘Nanetta’ on her stone) is a forgotten music hall star and little person who died with a huge following.
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William Mackenzie’s Liverpool Pyramid
The idea of a hunched poker-playing corpse inside a pyramid has a undeniable more public appeal.
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A Trip to Avebury Church: Henge Not Included
Sitting in the metaphorical shadow of Avebury’s mystical stone circle is the little modest structure of St James’ Church.
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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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Andrew Hyslop; Covenanter, Martyr.
One postcard lead to a story of a murdered covenanter who ended his days in a field in Dumfriesshire
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Kim Cattrall: The Unwelcome Cleopatra
What, so you thought I couldn’t link Sex and the City with bizarre grave controversies? Bet your finest patent heels I can.
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Lancaster Priory and the Headless White Lady
Lancaster Priory and the Parish Church of Lancaster are located right next to a medieval castle, on top of a hill overlooking the city.
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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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Going Underground: Berlin Cathedral Crypt
Ever have an existential crisis and hop on a plane to Germany to look at dead monarchs? Same mate, same.
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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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Legsby St Thomas: Beef Rolls and Busy Farmers
Legsby St Thomas: A place for worship, farmers, locked chest mysteries and grave stories waiting to be told.
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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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4 Fake Cemetery Ghosts: The weird, the drunk and the monkey.
The long and delightful tradition of going ‘wooooo’ in cemeteries to frighten passers-by is a rarely celebrated phenomenon.
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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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Collection Feature: Rev. Timothy Carey
This week, with the help of some wonderful WWI archive websites, I hope to share a little of the life of the Reverend Timothy Carey.
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Nancy Luce, The Chicken Lady
For company, Nancy may not have had humans, but she had her chickens…
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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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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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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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St Botolph’s, Skidbrooke
When beginning a new project or blog, its all too easy to overthink. Will my content be too niche? Will readers find me boring? So,…
Burials & Beyond 