Graveyards, cemeteries, burial grounds, etc.

[Alex321]

Wife and myself always used to like to walk around cemeteries in Grerce in particular, they tend to do the same photo on the headstone.
What we used to call the death boxes, a little memorial at the side of the road were always interesting, you assume where someone had died in a car accident. The shocking thing is...there are quite a lot of them particually on Cretan mountain roads.

They are just as often commemorating where somebody survived an accident as where somebody died.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I grew up on a main road directly opposite the local church
and hence its graveyard

never bothered me even though I can;t ever remember going in it - except walking through for Scout services at the church a few times

but I remember saying I was walking home from Venture Scouts (so post 15) and someone saying they always hated walking that way because of the graveyard
It had never occurred to me to be worried!
turned out that a lot of people crossed the road rather than walk past on the same side as the road as the graveyard - even if they had to cross the main road again later

 

[All uphill]

I grew up on a main road directly opposite the local church
and hence its graveyard

never bothered me even though I can;t ever remember going in it - except walking through for Scout services at the church a few times

but I remember saying I was walking home from Venture Scouts (so post 15) and someone saying they always hated walking that way because of the graveyard
It had never occurred to me to be worried!
turned out that a lot of people crossed the road rather than walk past on the same side as the road as the graveyard - even if they had to cross the main road again later

Strange isn't it?

Dead people will do you no harm, its the living ones who'll run you over!

 

[AndyRM]

I got to see Oscar Wilde's grave earlier today at the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. Bit of a shame they've had to put a glass case round it for protection (people kept kissing it which was damaging it).

Tried and failed to find Edith Piaf and Proust's, but what a place! Probably one of my favourite graveyards.

 

[oldwheels]

I go and check the flowers on my wife's grave at least once a month.
It is a double lair so I will no doubt end up there as well. It has been designed to need no maintenance once I am not there to look after it as my family are too far away to realistically look after it.
This is a newish cemetery so no ancient headstones as in the old one which is full with the only unused graves belonging to somebody who has paid for a plot in the past.
Interesting to go and look around a cemetery in the Eastern Borders where my family ancestors had been buried for centuries.
Family history is interesting as they seemed to be into politics of the day which could be a dangerous interest although many are recorded as farmers but seemed to be very active in the Covenanting days.

 

[Alex321]

Strange isn't it?

Dead people will do you no harm, its the living ones who'll run you over!

It is.

Our last house was next to a church, with graveyard, and "overflow" graveyard the other side of our houise. Never bothered us in the slightest, we would just say we had quiet neighbours

 

[wiggydiggy]

I visited Cyprus earlier this year, their graveyards have very elaborate graves. Expect a picture at minimum and there was one I saw that had a kind of lifesize diorama of the deceased interests - it even had an ashtray with fake cigerette in it!

Few pics, these are from Polis.



The on site chapel is relatively small, though the main church nearby is significantly larger (below)

Main church (Απόστολος Ανδρέας), not open to visit sadly.

 

[Alex H]

While living in France, I was photographing listed buildings for French Wikipedia, it was a good way of getting somewhere new on my bike. I found what is known as a Lanterne des Morts or Lantern of the Dead in a nearby cemetery (which also had a chapel which was listed)
These towers appear all over France and also Poland and Germany. Apparently there is even a single survivor in England, according to Wikipedia
LINK

I then started seeking them out - these were fairly close to where I lived in the Limousin.

 

[lazybloke]

It is.

Our last house was next to a church, with graveyard, and "overflow" graveyard the other side of our houise. Never bothered us in the slightest, we would just say we had quiet neighbours

In the 1990s I went through a phase of wanting to convert an unsual building into a house. I got my hands on some AMAZING property catalogues - think prisons, towers, pubs, forts, castles, a lighthouse, and several churches.
Restrictive covenants and listed status were problematic. ££££££££££.

Church graveyards were difficult; you can't really do much with them. The bodies stay put. Older headstones could be moved but not removed; so lining them up along the boundary was about all you could do. Newer headstones had to stay put - although potentially could be laid flat.
Publc access to graves might need to be preserved.

 

[tyred]

It is.

Our last house was next to a church, with graveyard, and "overflow" graveyard the other side of our houise. Never bothered us in the slightest, we would just say we had quiet neighbours

Friends of my parents basically live in the middle of a graveyard as they were basically the Church caretakers and live in the old Sexton's cottage which comes with the job. Their son does the duties now.

They have a collection of weird bits and pieces such as a set of silver false teeth, daggers, old coins, jewellery, etc, that he dug up over years when digging graves.

 

[tyred]

I must admit I always like a wander around graveyards when cycle touring. You sometimes find interesting headstones.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

@All uphill
Abisque!
I have one, as my work-bike, bought as a frameset, a couple of years ago

 

[Yellow Fang]

Rolling Stones member Brian Jones has a modest headstone for someone so famous and adored by fans of the group. As a fan of the Rolling Stones back in the day as they say, I always wanted to visit his grave, expecting to see an elaborate headstone, probably constantly covered in fans bouquets and lit candles and stuff. That was in the days before you could look such things up on the internet. If they'd had the internet then, 40 odd years ago and I'd seen images of his grave I don't think I'd have been so enthusiastic about making the journey. I would've been sadly disappointed to see such a mundane stone with no mention of his Rolling Stones association on it at all. Maybe he'd written a will, just in case something bad happened, which obviously did and specified such a headstone. Maybe his family blamed the other Stones members for his death and didn't want them mentioned on his headstone. 🤔

View attachment 753716
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1633/brian-jones

His coffin was very elaborate. The type you'd expect fo

r such a person as Brian Jones, but the grave itself is so disappointing.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkWTJttthLc

Slightly morbid, but I came across Marc Bolan's (T-Rex) memorial when I was walking to a crematorium in Barnes. It was just by the side of a lane.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-o/0b/7a/ae/2c/marc-bolan-s-rock-shrine.jpg

The cemetery attached to the crematorium contained the grave of one of Charles Dicken's sons. He survived a surprisingly long time into the 20th Century. I think he died in his nineties. He was a judge.