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.

Highgate

this is one of the best pictures i've taken, it doens't look great or anything, but it was just so exciting to find! I was walking round highgate cemetary and i stuck my camera in a hole by the path and took a picture, this is what came out -

The grave is a family tomb of many generations, the small coffin you can see on the right is a two year old girl, along side the larger coffin of her grandfather or greatgrandfather, can't remember exactly and the ashes of the other family members in the small boxes