Tewkesbury

I spent the day today wondering round Tewkesbury, a town about ten miles from me, so close by, yet I had no idea how much amazing history there is to see there. I unfortunately didn't have my camera with me, but I got some nice pictures on my phone although I will go back with my SLR soon!

I found an old Baptist Chapel down a tiny ally, with a small, secluded graveyard with gravestones dating from 1607 - the earliest I could decipher.

This fabulous little devil door knocker was on a tiny old door on the way down to the graveyard.

A particularly nice stone, partially broken, but the date is in the 1790s I just love the skull carving on this.

We then went into Tewkesbury Abbey, such a lovely building, full of ancient tombs and carvings, luckily I had my Dad with me to translate the Latin inscriptions :)

The main reason I visited Tewkesbury was to see a cadaver tomb I'd read about and it was stunning.
The monument is to John Wakeman who was Abbot of Tewkesbury  from 1531 to 1539, he prepared the tomb for himself with Vermin crawling over the skeletal cadaver, but he never used the tomb and was buried elsewhere.

A terrible image

I started a new job in January, in StJohns, Worcester and I've actually become quite fond of StJohns, its nothing special at all, but there's something about it.
While I was researching for my dissertation a few years ago I came across a reference to a very unusual monument in StJohns church that I have been meaning to go and look for for the past 3 years and now I work down the road from the church I really have no excuse!

I wasn't even sure it would still be there, as I couldn't find much about it online, but I went to have a look, and there it was in the porch of the church and it took my breath away, it's absolutely stunning.
The monument is to the two sons of Thomas Hopkins, a hop merchant in the city, his eldest son John died in January 1871.
Thomas Hopkins had the monument made to include a photograph of the dead boy, aged 14 when he died, the photograph was taken by Francis Charles Earl of Worcester Broad Street, the image is large, 6 by 13 inches and is set in a monument with stone angels and a plaque to John and his younger brother Jonathon who died a few years after John at the age of 2.

I am currently reading the fantastic book 'The English Way of Death' by Julian Litten and the book includes a little bit about the image and he describes it beautifully

"Although he was obviously placed carefully on the sofa, the freshly pomaded hair is awry and could have benefited from a comb prior to being photographed. It is a terrible image, the child so patently dead and cold. Yet perhaps Thomas Hopkins and his wife took some solace in so commemorating the death of their eldest son" 

I photographed the monument and almost didn't want to leave afterwards, it really is so beautiful and completely heartbreaking.