PrincessVenom
Member
Went for a visit to St Pancras cemetery this afternoon, seeing as it's just down the road from me.
First obstacle was getting to the bloomin' place. Ice all over the pavements. I pretty much skated there. At this point I'm quite glad I left the dog at home snoring on the bed, seeing as he's an 8 stone Doberman and I don't even weigh 7 stone. Could be interesting if he decided to charge off to say hello to another dog
Second obstacle came as I walked through the woods to get there:
Nice icey watery lake formed over the path! Complete with ethreal mist.
So I had to tramp around the long way to get to the fence that I climb through (yes, yes, I know there is a proper entrance on the road, but that's an even longer walk, and I refuse to drive unless I REALLY have to!)
Anyways, through the fence I finally went, into the rather aptly misty, spooky looking graveyard.
Decayed old sign for the 'road' the graves are on
Pile of rubbled headstones around a tree
Strange random skeleton of a VW. Strange that somebody would just leave an abandoned car in a place of rest.
More of inside the car
Ivy-smothered grave from 1860
Some kind of family crypt, with fairly modern metal/bricked up entrance. I contemplated seeing if the metal door slid away, but it was a little too close to what appeared to be the admin building, with cars driving around the 'road'. Didn't fancy explaining that one.
Yet another long since forgotten about, abandoned car. Can't even begin to ID the model.
Completely eroded headstone, with fallen tree roots growing around it!
Another completely eroded headstone, and it's neighbour being strangled with ivy.
Headstones long forgotten in the trees.
More erosion, more trees.
Nature reclaims...
Recently crumbled headstone, again completely eroded. Vandals, or Father Time in league with Mother Nature?
And that is all. I was quite surprised at the amount of completely eroded headstones, as well as the amount of gravesites which had been completely destroyed by the elements. There were many which had quite literally been scattered by large trees growing from the middle of the headstone/stone surround. Makes me wonder if the remains ever make it to the surface? And if so, what on earth happens to them?
The other thing I found interesting was how some graves were dated from the mid to late 1800's, and had fully readable inscriptions on them, yet there were others from the 1920s or so which were almost completely erased. There were also many graves from as early as 1900 which seemed to still be tended by people - glass vases with rotting flowers in them and so on - how many generations must have passed since their death? Yet people are still going and remembering them and tending the grave of somebody they almost certainly never met. But there were still many, many graves from mid 1900 which had been long since forgotten about.
I also ventured into the 'modern' area whilst making my way back. It's still at the very rear of the cemetery, and I'm assuming it must be either the cremation area, or the 'pauper' area, as the gravesites were very, very tiny. I was quite shocked to see that despite these graves being dated in the 1950-1970's, some of them were without headstones - they had simply branches or planks of wood strapped together to form a cross, wedged into the ground. One even had the name scribbled on, almost carelessly, in white paint. It was a very odd thing to see, especially beside graves covered in trinkets, cards, flowers and wreaths.
Spent probably only around an hour there in the end. Would have liked to go over to the other very far side, but I'd discovered that I was wearing wholly inappropriate footwear for climbing through vines and woodland scrub - my feet were soaking and cold, and my shoes covered in mud and ice. So I started to make my way back. One more surprise awaiting me on my walk back to the fence though - a complete large tray of eggs and a packet of 8 raw chicken legs!?! One can only assume somebody must have been feeding the foxes? I even checked the sale by date
Dec 30! So pretty darn fresh, too! People do abandon some funny things!
First obstacle was getting to the bloomin' place. Ice all over the pavements. I pretty much skated there. At this point I'm quite glad I left the dog at home snoring on the bed, seeing as he's an 8 stone Doberman and I don't even weigh 7 stone. Could be interesting if he decided to charge off to say hello to another dog
Second obstacle came as I walked through the woods to get there:
Nice icey watery lake formed over the path! Complete with ethreal mist.
So I had to tramp around the long way to get to the fence that I climb through (yes, yes, I know there is a proper entrance on the road, but that's an even longer walk, and I refuse to drive unless I REALLY have to!)
Anyways, through the fence I finally went, into the rather aptly misty, spooky looking graveyard.
Decayed old sign for the 'road' the graves are on
Pile of rubbled headstones around a tree
Strange random skeleton of a VW. Strange that somebody would just leave an abandoned car in a place of rest.
More of inside the car
Ivy-smothered grave from 1860
Some kind of family crypt, with fairly modern metal/bricked up entrance. I contemplated seeing if the metal door slid away, but it was a little too close to what appeared to be the admin building, with cars driving around the 'road'. Didn't fancy explaining that one.
Yet another long since forgotten about, abandoned car. Can't even begin to ID the model.
Completely eroded headstone, with fallen tree roots growing around it!
Another completely eroded headstone, and it's neighbour being strangled with ivy.
Headstones long forgotten in the trees.
More erosion, more trees.
Nature reclaims...
Recently crumbled headstone, again completely eroded. Vandals, or Father Time in league with Mother Nature?
And that is all. I was quite surprised at the amount of completely eroded headstones, as well as the amount of gravesites which had been completely destroyed by the elements. There were many which had quite literally been scattered by large trees growing from the middle of the headstone/stone surround. Makes me wonder if the remains ever make it to the surface? And if so, what on earth happens to them?
The other thing I found interesting was how some graves were dated from the mid to late 1800's, and had fully readable inscriptions on them, yet there were others from the 1920s or so which were almost completely erased. There were also many graves from as early as 1900 which seemed to still be tended by people - glass vases with rotting flowers in them and so on - how many generations must have passed since their death? Yet people are still going and remembering them and tending the grave of somebody they almost certainly never met. But there were still many, many graves from mid 1900 which had been long since forgotten about.
I also ventured into the 'modern' area whilst making my way back. It's still at the very rear of the cemetery, and I'm assuming it must be either the cremation area, or the 'pauper' area, as the gravesites were very, very tiny. I was quite shocked to see that despite these graves being dated in the 1950-1970's, some of them were without headstones - they had simply branches or planks of wood strapped together to form a cross, wedged into the ground. One even had the name scribbled on, almost carelessly, in white paint. It was a very odd thing to see, especially beside graves covered in trinkets, cards, flowers and wreaths.
Spent probably only around an hour there in the end. Would have liked to go over to the other very far side, but I'd discovered that I was wearing wholly inappropriate footwear for climbing through vines and woodland scrub - my feet were soaking and cold, and my shoes covered in mud and ice. So I started to make my way back. One more surprise awaiting me on my walk back to the fence though - a complete large tray of eggs and a packet of 8 raw chicken legs!?! One can only assume somebody must have been feeding the foxes? I even checked the sale by date
Dec 30! So pretty darn fresh, too! People do abandon some funny things!
