Recommend a graveyard/grave

[ColinJ]

Poet Sylvia Plath's grave is in Heptonstall graveyard. There has been a battle about the wording on the headstone. Some feminists took exception to her name being inscribed as 'Sylvia Plath Hughes' (she was married to Ted Hughes, who was born in nearby Mytholmroyd) and chiselled off the 'Hughes'. It was repaired or replaced several times. Sometimes the grave was left unmarked for a while. I have just read that 'masculinists' (!) at one time chiselled 'Plath' off the stone in retaliation - pretty pathetic, but there you go. I haven't been in that graveyard for some years so I don't know what the current situation with the grave is.

There is an article on Wikipedia about Sylvia Plath - what a sad story!

Anyway, @Blue Hills - it would be a nice place to visit during one of your visits home to the Ribble Valley. The original church in the village was ruined and replaced by the current church, but the old ruins still stand. There is a cafe not far from the church (Towngate Tearooms) which I often call in at on my rides. There is also that Wetherspoons in Todmorden that you want to visit ...

At this time of year it might be best to cycle to Hebden Bridge via the A646 and then up Heptonstall Rd to the village. A more strenuous and scenic route would be via Nelson and Widdop Rd, but that might be better saved for spring or summer!

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Novel idea for a thread.

I'll nominate St. Chads, Shrewsbury for this:

(Apologies to those who remember me mentioning it before)

 

[tony111]

Local people who live in my town can't be buried in the local cemetery........they have to wait until they die.

 

[classic33]

Poet Sylvia Plath's grave is in Heptonstall graveyard. There has been a battle about the wording on the headstone. Some feminists took exception to her name being inscribed as 'Sylvia Plath Hughes' (she was married to Ted Hughes, who was born in nearby Mytholmroyd) and chiselled off the 'Hughes'. It was repaired or replaced several times. Sometimes the grave was left unmarked for a while. I have just read that 'masculinists' (!) at one time chiselled 'Plath' off the stone in retaliation - pretty pathetic, but there you go. I haven't been in that graveyard for some years so I don't know what the current situation with the grave is.

There is an article on Wikipedia about Sylvia Plath - what a sad story!

Anyway, @Blue Hills - it would be a nice place to visit during one of your visits home to the Ribble Valley. The original church in the village was ruined and replaced by the current church, but the old ruins still stand. There is a cafe not far from the church (Towngate Tearooms) which I often call in at on my rides. There is also that Wetherspoons in Todmorden that you want to visit ...

At this time of year it might be best to cycle to Hebden Bridge via the A646 and then up Heptonstall Rd to the village. A more strenuous and scenic route would be via Nelson and Widdop Rd, but that might be better saved for spring or summer!

Could include it with a visit to Robin Hoods grave.

 

[Firestorm]

Eye , the plague village has an interesting graveyard

 

[User32269]

I do my own little bike tours of Liverpool cemeteries. The Childe of Hale mentioned upthread is in St Mary's, Hale Village. Everton Cemetery was the site of a ghoulish exhumation in the 90's to return the buried head of an Aborigine to Australia. There is also a fascinating grave in St Mary's, Walton that we have known as the pirates grave since childhood. It has a very eroded stone but with a skull and crossbones clearly visible.

 

[Blue Hills]

Poet Sylvia Plath's grave is in Heptonstall graveyard. There has been a battle about the wording on the headstone. Some feminists took exception to her name being inscribed as 'Sylvia Plath Hughes' (she was married to Ted Hughes, who was born in nearby Mytholmroyd) and chiselled off the 'Hughes'. It was repaired or replaced several times. Sometimes the grave was left unmarked for a while. I have just read that 'masculinists' (!) at one time chiselled 'Plath' off the stone in retaliation - pretty pathetic, but there you go. I haven't been in that graveyard for some years so I don't know what the current situation with the grave is.

There is an article on Wikipedia about Sylvia Plath - what a sad story!

Anyway, @Blue Hills - it would be a nice place to visit during one of your visits home to the Ribble Valley. The original church in the village was ruined and replaced by the current church, but the old ruins still stand. There is a cafe not far from the church (Towngate Tearooms) which I often call in at on my rides. There is also that Wetherspoons in Todmorden that you want to visit ...

At this time of year it might be best to cycle to Hebden Bridge via the A646 and then up Heptonstall Rd to the village. A more strenuous and scenic route would be via Nelson and Widdop Rd, but that might be better saved for spring or summer!

@ColinJ yes, deal weather willing. No easy rides round there! As to the unfortunate sylvia, the only thing that matters is what she would have wanted/thought appropriate. Whether the chisellers took that into account I don't know.

As for the Ribble Valley, anyone round that way should walk into the church in Downham. Then turn straight round and look out of the door. Surely one of the most wondrous views from a church doorway anywhere in the country.

 

[robjh]

Any cemetery in Catholic parts of East-Central Europe on the evening of All Saints' Eve, Day of the Dead, 31st October. No cartoon halloween ghouls, but candles everywhere as people visit their family graves. This is Hrabušice in Slovakia, on our big European trip a few years ago (no, sadly not by bike)

 

[Reynard]

St John the Baptist's churchyard in Alresford, Hants.

There's a bevvy of Napoleonic POW graves if you're into military history, but the racing driver Paul Warwick (brother of ex-F1, Sportscar & BTCC driver Derek Warwick) is also buried there. Paul was killed in a British F3000 race at Oulton Park in 1991.

 

[Blue Hills]

There is also a fascinating grave in St Mary's, Walton that we have known as the pirates grave since childhood. It has a very eroded stone but with a skull and crossbones clearly visible.

St nicholas deptford has very spooky eroded stone skull and crossbones atop the columns of its gateposts and some reckon that this is the origin of the pirate jolly roger. Christopher Marlow of Dr Faustus fame is also apparently buried in the graveyard though it's not known where.

 

[MarkF]

I still sleep in the Spanish ones.........Bradford's Undercliffe Cemetery is a belter, best outside London IMO, the wool barons vying for location and pizazz to outdo each other in death.

 

[User32269]

St nicholas deptford has very spooky eroded stone skull and crossbones the columns of its gateposts and some reckon that this is the origin of the pirate jolly roger. Christopher Marlow of Dr Faustus fame is also apparently buried in the graveyard though it's not known where.

Research is patchy on the Liverpool grave. Theories range from a pirate (privateer) a plague victim, or to mark the end of a family line/surname.

photo not taken by me

 

[Blue Hills]

I still sleep in the Spanish ones.........Bradford's Undercliffe Cemetery is a belter, best outside London IMO, the wool barons vying for location and pizazz to outdo each other in death.

View attachment 384536

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You sleep in cemetaries? Have often thought of doing this when freecamping, though wouldn't pitch a tent, and would use a discreet non offensive spot.

Thanks for the pics of undercliffe - know about it but never got round to going.

 

[Blue Hills]

Research is patchy on the Liverpool grave. Theories range from a pirate (privateer) a plague victim, or to mark the end of a family line/surname.
View attachment 384539 photo not taken by me

Nice pic. The use of the heart above the skullband bones is interesting.

 

[MarkF]

You sleep in cemetaries? Have often thought of doing this when freecamping, though wouldn't pitch a tent, and would use a discreet non offensive spot.

Thanks for the pics of undercliffe - know about it but never got round to going.

Old Spanish ones, they are set apart from the towns, nobody goes there apart from maintenance guys.