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 new addition to my collection

I found another gem for my collection recently, it's a postmortem picture of a child from Belgium.

Autumn

I'm feeling abit sad that Halloween is over, it's my favourite time of year, and this year was the best Halloween i've ever had, I spent the day having a tour round Highgate cemetery, such a beautiful place.
I managed to get some pictures, unfortunately just phone snaps but they capture some of the atmosphere of the place.
I adore the stone angels and there are so many of these adorning Highgate cemetery, rising from the undergrowth, reaching for heaven.

A rather beautiful Gothic style vault in the Egyptian circle here, belonging to Carl Rosa and his family, Carl Rosa was a German musical impresario who founded the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1873. His is one of a number of Gothic style vaults lining this pathway.

Another Beautiful monument in the west cemetery is this Sleeping Lion, his name was Nero and he belonged to famous menagerie exhibitor George Wombwell, Nero was a docile Lion, it is said children used to climb all over him.

This is one of my favourite tombstones in Highgate, a sleeping angel, lying amongst the leaves and vines

All the vault doors in the cemetery are decorated with Inverted torches symbolizing life extinguished, another interesting detail is the keyholes on each vault are also inverted.

1. Silently, silently
   They are laid to rest,
   Free from care, over there,
   Dwelling with the blest.
   They shall bear no more life’s burdens,
   Sickness, sorrow, death, or pain;
   In that spirit-land they’re waiting,
   Where with Christ their souls shall reign.

New French Post Mortem

My second birthday present from my parents was a lovely little French Post Mortem Cabinet Card (I chose it) its a small sized card, and I love it, its so delicate and beautiful.

Here I am holding it so you can get an idea of its size, I went through a phase of the bigger the better with the photos I was buying, but I'm getting much more interested in the little ones recently. There's something so fragile and delicate about the small ones that is so beautiful. I have another one this size and they look so lovely together, a good quality image in this size of cabinet card is just unbeatable! 

Here is a scan of the full thing, as I've mentioned it's from France, the child is posed outside judging from the wall behind. He or she has the typical 'death curl' in the hair and the face is just heartbreaking and slightly spooky. This poor child looks so fragile in death, hopefully this photograph brought some comfort to the parents and helped preserve the child's memory.

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.

Civil War

I have long been fascinated by the beautiful and terrible images created in the American Civil war, one of my favourite websites www.shorpy.com has a stunning collection of Civil War photographs.

April 1865. "Cold Harbor, Virginia. Collecting remains of dead on the battlefield after the war." Memento mori. Wet plate by John Reekie.

September 1862. "Antietam, Maryland. Confederate dead by a fence on the Hagerstown road." The first major battle of the Civil War on Union territory. Wet plate glass negative.

"1865. Charleston, South Carolina. Vendue Range looking east from near the corner of East Bay Street." Aftermath of the Great Fire of 1861 and bombardment by the Federal Navy. Wet plate glass negative

August 1863. Bealeton, Va. "Capt. Henry Page, assistant quartermaster, at Army of Potomac headquarters with horse." Wet plate glass negative.

He Sleeps Where He Fell 1864 Dead Confederate soldier near Mrs. Alsop's house." Wet-plate glass negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan. Photos from Grant's Wilderness Campaign, May-June 1864.

1865. "City Point, Virginia. Brig. Gen. John A. Rawlins, wife and child at Grant's headquarters." Wet plate glass negative, photographer unknown.

July 1863. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. "John L. Burns, the 'old hero of Gettysburg,' with gun and crutches." Burns, born ca. 1793, was a 70-year-old veteran of the War of 1812 when he was wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg, having volunteered his services as a sharpshooter to the Federal Army. He died of pneumonia in 1872. Wet-plate glass negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan. 

April 3, 1865. Petersburg, Virginia. "Dead Confederate soldier in trenches of Fort Mahone." Wet plate glass negative, right half of stereo pair, by Thomas C. Roche. Civil War glass negative collection, Library of Congress.

These amazing images make me think of this Beautiful song 'Hills of Shiloh' sung here by Bud and Travis



Be sure to check out www.shorpy.com for so many more amazing images.

Afraid of Thunderstorms

Florence Irene Ford 

Sept 3rd 1861 - Oct 30th 1871

Ten-year-old Florence died of yellow fever. 

During her life she had been incredibly frightened of storms and whenever one occurred she would rush to her mother for reassurance.

Upon Florence's death her mother was so grief stricken that she had Florence's casket constructed with a glass window at the child’s head, furthermore when the grave was dug, she had a set of steps installed so she could descend to her daughters level and look into the grave through a thick glass window. Whenever there was a storm she would go and sit by her daughter to comfort her.
After the mothers death the glass wall was replaced with concrete, but you can still go down the steps to Florence's grave.

Christmas Time

Its Christmas day! I've had a pleasant, chilled out day. My parents are watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special, which I don't like, so I decided to share my Christmas pressies on here.
I got two amazing postmortem pictures from my dad, so Chuffed with them.





The Man who sold these photographs said they were both of the same child. This could well be true, the children appear to be the same age and the wreath of flowers round the head on the one picture does look alot like the wreath resting on the childs lap in the other picture.
The only thing is I wonder why the two set ups are so different in background, the one in white with wallpaper behind, the other completely surrounded by Dark fabric. the mounts are also different, why would only one mount have the photographers stamp on it? I guess we'll never know for sure.