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gravepix at ukgraves.info |  |
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gravepix at ukgraves.info | |
UKGraves.info is becoming quite a popular site. It's high up the listings of most of the main search engines, and I'm aware that the site is 'spidered' by them quite regularly, ie, the engines often come back to have a look for any new material I've put on the site. This means I'm getting emails from people who are interested, or who just want to make a comment. Here are a few exchanges, which I have anonymised for reasons of my correspondents' privacy
Regarding a local church
Hello
I have visited your site on the internet and I amazed at the quality and number of pictures there.
I am from Holy Trinity, ----, and I have just completed a new website for the church. It is:
www.----.co.uk
I wondered if it might be possible to put a link to our site on the page of pictures that you have of the church.
I am happy to reciprocate with a link if you would like. I do not have much text on our front page and it the major search engines are slow to pick up our pages. Yours comes up high in all searches for ---- so it would be of great benefit to us if you could do this.
Kindest regards,
From a gentleman in America
I found your photographs of ---- (St. Michael) Churchyard interesting as my grandfather's nephew (a WWI) casualty was buried there in 1918. From the details I read, there were 17 military burials there and I was wondering whether you may have photographed the gravesite of ---- who was killed on ----. I've attached a copy of the record and hope you may be able to open same. I also read your note that you were going to do some photo work at Brompton Cemetery. My records indicate that ----'s grandfather (my great grandfather) ---- was buried there ... most likely in 1898 or 1899. I have not found an e-mail or other address for Brompton Cemetery and I'm wondering whether you may have same. It's my belief, from a collection of old letters we have, that the ---- family had a number of family members buried at Brompton Cemetery. All this may not be of interest to you and if I don't receive a reply I will understand. Many thanks, ----, ---- (U.S.)
I returned to that particualr church, where I found the grave in question, and was very pleased
to be able to send four large high quality images to my correspondent.
From a lady in the United Kingdom
I have recently completed my family genealogy and have visited my families ancestral villages in Gloucester.
I was pleased to find that you have photos of the villages church yard (----), but I couldn't understand how you could say that you found ----, to be rather uninteresting.
It was the most amazing thing to kneel beside my ancestors tombs and I certainly found them interesting and inspiring.
By the way, your UkGraves site is a great idea (regardless of your comments).
I replied thus:
Dear ----,
Thanks for taking the time and trouble to write.
I have no doubt whatsoever that you found it personally inspiring to
visit the grave of a loved one, regardless of the setting. I, however,
not having a relative buried in that particular graveyard, merely
reported what I found at the time of my visit. I have to date covered
about 130 churchyards and cemeteries, and continue to do so weekly,
and I can only report what I find in any particular site in comparison
to all the others I've seen, and I'm afraid that I did find ----
to be rather uninteresting. I do need to be objective in my brief
reports - it would be inaccurate of me to state that every site I
visit is sheer perfection for fear of upsetting those who have
ancestors buried there.
I should also add that I receive a great many very positive emails
about my site, many of which ask if I could possibly revisit a church
in order to specifically photograph the grave of a loved one.
I'm sorry if my comments caused you any distress, but would ask you to
understand my objective position. In general, there is nowhere I like
visiting better than an ancient graveyard, and always do so with the
utmost respect both to the living and the dead.
Regards,
From a gentleman in Southampton, UK, July 2005
I was pointed towards your site by a correspondent, and I must say I have found it a real delight. I suppose there are many of us similarly fascinated by burial places, but few have used the enthusiasm as well as you.
I was drawn towards the subject when I did a project about ten years ago as part of a Family History diploma course at King Alfred's College Winchester. I investigated the 'History and Records of Hampshire Cemeteries', which apparently had not been done before, and I subsequently wrote a booklet on the subject which was published by the Hampshire Genealogical Society. I wish I had had access to photographs as good as yours to illustrate an otherwise quite dry subject.
One thing I found I needed to do for this study and for later lectures on the subject to various family history groups, was to draw a clear distinction between the two types of burial grounds one comes across. The older traditional graveyards associated with churches is one, but the second, the subject of my study, is the secular cemetery, owned and managed by local authorities. I drew the distinction in my talks by using the term churchyard for the first, and cemetery for the second.
Like you I used O.S. Landranger maps to locate (I hope) all the Hampshire Cemeteries, because they are identified thereon by the abbreviation Cemy. I did find though that sometimes they used this abbreviation for churchyards, when they were not adjacent to the owning church.
Of course this distinction is irrelevant to the work you are doing. >From the family historian's point of view however, there is a vital difference. Cemeteries are governed by various Cemetery Acts starting in 1850, and the local authority is obliged to keep a record of the location of every burial, and an interested member of the public has the right to enquire as to the whereabouts of a particular grave, and be told how to find it. Churchyards on the other hand are managed by ecclesiastical authorities, who invariably fail to keep any records - the location of graves is usually in the head of the local sexton!
Incidentally, while there are about 460 parish churches, most with churchyards, in Hampshire, there are also about 100 secular cemeteries. If you are aiming at a complete collection, there is quite a way to go!
Military Cemeteries: I found some of the most poignant places to visit were Military Cemeteries, and I recommend the Royal Naval Cemetery at Haslar, Gosport, the Aldershot Military Cemetery, set on rolling ground, and the Royal Military Hospital Cemetery at Netley, near Southampton. For the latter, unless you sneak round the back and park at Hound, you have to pay a pound parking fee to enter the Royal Victoria Park where the Cemetery is located.
==============
Now for a couple of comments that occurred to me as I read about some of the places you have visited.
Southampton Cemeteries: In addition to the Old Cemetery on the Common (1846), and the newest Hollybrook Cemetery (1913, located chillingly directly opposite the General Hospital), there are two other Cemeteries in use within the City boundaries. South Stoneham Cemetery (1905) at Swaythling, and St. Mary Extra (1879), in Woolston. Not that they are particularly interesting, although St Mary Extra does have that fascinating phenomenon the Siamese twin chapels.
When these secular cemeteries were first set up, they often came with two chapels, one for C of E, the other nonconformist, as well as a lodge for the cemetery superintendent. In some cases, as with Southampton Common Cemetery these chapels were physically separate, and built in different styles. Good examples of these are at Romsey and Petersfield. But another approach was to build them to the same design, but as mirror images of one another. Kingston Cemetery in Portsmouth has good examples of these. The ultimate scheme was to build the two mirror image chapels connected together, and St Mary Extra Cemetery in Southampton, and the Redan Road cemetery at Aldershot have excellent examples of these. St Mary Extra has entrances on the outsides, while at Aldershot there is a shared covered driveway between the two.
Skulls: You mentioned you had not seen any gravestones with skulls depicted in England. At Millbrook churchyard in Southampton, there are a couple of such old gravestones, with skulls and crossbones. Also a couple of iron tombs.
Freefolk: On a walk one day I visited Freefolk, and was impressed by the terrace of charming thatched alms houses facing the road. It was only on walking round the back of the terrace that one could see that the thatch only went a couple of feet over the ridge, and the rest of the roof at the back was slate.
All Saints, Netheravon, Wilts: while I agree with you that it is quite an unprepossessing church and churchyard, and has little of interest from an artistic viewpoint, for a military historian it has a lot of interest, on account of the number of graves of early fliers, accidentally killed in aeroplane accidents in the Netheravon area.
St Michael and All Angels, Figheldean, Wilts: I was particularly interested in this as my grandparents and various aunts and uncles are buried here. One of the things villagers like to point out here is the 'giant's grave', which is of normal width but about 12 feet long. No-one seems to know who is buried there, but probably it was someone's idea to have a family plot with adjacent graves joined not side by side as normal, but head to head (or foot to foot, or head to foot). Perhaps the occupants weren't on speaking terms?
It is easy to miss it, as it lies beyond some bushes, where the ground starts to fall away towards the River Avon.
Many thanks to you for giving me the opportunity to reminisce like this,and please keep up the good work.
Yours,
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