I have just spent the last 12 days at a job in a suburb of Preston, Lancashire and although I haven’t been able to explore the city (we’re just too far away), I have been able to explore Preston Cemetery 🙂 Although Preston Cemetery was established in and opened in 1855, the earliest year of a recorded death was 1781. I did search all over for this particular grave but was unsuccessful.
Preston Cemetery
The cemetery is a 5-8 minute walk away from the house and en-route to the store where we collect the newspaper, so I’ve had plenty of opportunity to visit during my breaks…which have been a tad tricky to arrange, but I’ve deliberately made a plan to get out, even if just for a hour….or on my way to the store 😉
Preston Cemetery, Lancashire. the newer section at 09:36 in the morning
I initially thought that the section I walked past was it…but one day as I explored farther afield, and wondered at the fact that most of the memorials appeared to be fairly new, I discovered the older, original section….now we’re talking.
Preston Cemetery, Lancashire – the old section
Oh my gosh, it’s amazing. the Victorians really went all out on their extravagant memorials, some of which are quite simply outlandish…huge and ostentatious; urns, wreaths, broken columns, upside-down torches, obelisks, grieving women
albeit a later burial; a grieving woman – Preston Cemetery, Lancashire
– many monuments in Victorian cemeteries are pagan rather than Christian, or classical (Roman) or Egyptian.
Victorian funerary symbols
Victorian graves tended to be much more elaborate than modern graves. It was expected that a middle-class family would spend as much as it could afford on a monument appropriate to the deceased’s (and the family’s) social status. Monuments were usually symbolic – either religious (crosses, angels, the letters IHS, a monogram for Jesus Savior of Man in Greek), symbols of profession (whip and horseshoes for a coach driver, swords for a general, palette for a painter), or symbols of death.
A wreath decorates the gates of Preston Cemetery
I’ve taken a load of photos of some of the memorials, but you can be sure there is a surfeit of extraordinary plots and memorials to be seen. Many of the memorials are unsurprisingly, but very sadly for babies and children of all ages, from the tiniest infant through to children of 10 and upwards into teens.
memorials on the newer side
These early deaths are not limited to the Victorians, one memorial I saw was for two babies from the same family who died a few days apart at 3 months and 3.5 months, along with a number of other family members, different times, all young. Oh the tragedy.
this appears to be a family plot…so many all with the same name; some mere infants
In all my years of exploring cemeteries around the UK, I have never seen so many memorials for infants 😦
Although cemeteries have an air of sadness and desolation about them, they are fascinating places to visit with so many stories of lives lived, some long, many short, others in service to King and Country. Preston Cemetery is also the location for Commonwealth War Graves……too young!!
Commonwealth War Graves – WW1
These cemeteries are also places of incredible beauty.
Preston Cemetery, Lancashire
I love the many graveyards and cemeteries I find on my travels around the UK, Preston has certainly been one of my favourites.
life and death; autumn beauty in a Victorian cemetery
A couple of interesting, albeit gruesome articles about death, dying and cemeteries in Victorian England and London.
http://listverse.com/2015/06/21/10-odd-and-eerie-tales-of-londons-victorian-cemeteries/
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jan/22/death-city-grisly-secrets-victorian-london-dead
