Inconvenient Dead

Colin Fenn telling tales of burial grounds, cemeteries & Victorian sanitation. Historian, protector & promoter of cemeteries, volunteering & friends groups.

[Paul Lewis @paullewismoney]

Kensal Green Cemetery in London is the burial place of hundreds of famous Victorian figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, Wilkie Collins and Harold Pinter. It is under threat from developers https://t.co/WdEEqVP7OI say local campaigners

[The Best @TheBestqueenx]

😂😂😂

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

@UnusualGraves Very interesting lead wrapping around the edges & carving/spelling of her "BETER" life

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

The Five Ashes Baptist Burial Ground at Odcombe in Somerset is up for sale...
Have the Baptists given up their responsibilities?
https://t.co/P6z3VP6uFZ

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

@annaandthedead Similar IHS tile to one used in Derby's Uttoxeter Rd cemetery.
Credit to @RogerBowdler who first pointed this out

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

#31DaysOfGraves 16 Obelisk
Robert Owen's cenotaph at Kensal Green @Magnificent1of7. He established New Lanark mill (now a World Heritage Site).
Next to the Reformers' Memorial "to the memory of the men & women who ... improve the conditions & enlarge the happiness of all classes"

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

@FOWCemetery This is not stone but a glazed fireclay monument, one proprietary name was "grancotta". They last well, unless they are chipped by lawn mowers or, as here, a heavy impact.

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

#31DaysOfGraves 15 Damaged
It was a dark & stormy night in the 1980s when a lightning strike blasted away the canopy of the Moffat tomb at Norwood @fownc1837

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

#31DaysOfGraves 14 Inside
Birmingham's Picadilly Arcade has some amazing ceilings: views out from inside the grave!

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

@hellohistoria I'd feel quite intimidated if that angel met me at the Pearly Gates!

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

#31DaysOfGraves 13 Skeleton
The business card of Nathaniel Longbottom of Southwark, dealer in "skeletons of different sizes & both sexes".
Makes you wonder where he got a reliable supply of cadavers from?
[Wellcome collection]

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

#31daysofgraves 12 Woman
Emma Soyer, artist & recent subject of BBC's @FakeorFortune1. She was the wife of celebrity chef Alexis Soyer. Her monument stands tall & proud inside Kensal Green Cemetery @Magnificent1of7, looking out at the traffic on Harrow Road

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

#31daysofgraves 11 Military
The catcomb of Admiral Young in @fownc1837. He lays opposite the catafalque (the lift to the demolished chapel above.)
Vice Admiral of the Blue, he was "distinguished not less for zeal, ability & courteousness in the discharge of his public duties"

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

#31DaysOfGraves 10 urn
At @fownc1837 is the grave of Capt Lindow, 17th Lancers "Death or Glory boys". His cremation was the 16th in England & flames erupt from his memorial urn. The plinth states "cremated by his own desire", underscoring his innovative funeral.

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

@McindoeSue 😱

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

#31DaysOfGraves 9: hand
Battersea cemetery has a painted headstone with an unusual variation on the typical handshake, "well met in death": here the hand is pulled away, leaving her widower behind.

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

@Friends_StJohns https://t.co/0yCHXo4WBU

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

Its October and time to launch into #31daysofgraves
(belatedly) for 1st, here's a cheerful little lily of the valley, from Broseley

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

@Friends_StJohns Obsidian glass is not a material I recall seeing in other burial grounds. My studies include ceramic memorials, there's a similar use of decorative tiles to "enliven" a plain headstone.

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

@crewedave1 There's an archive from Chance Bros over at Smethwick, I hope to visit @sandwellcouncil one day

[Inconvenient Dead @DedInconvenient]

#31DaysOfGraves, 8 Glass
The toppled memorial at Malvern of Edward Chance of Chance Brothers, the great Victorian glass manufacturer. They made Crystal Palace's glass & Big Ben's clockface. Edward ran the alkaline works, a horrendous process. Like his workers, he too died early.