the guide · visit the locations for the crown; a witchcraft museum in london; a roman temple...
TRANSCRIPT
Digging up the mysteries of burial grounds
THE BLOODY TOWER
DISCOVER BRITAIN WITH BRITAIN’S BEST GUIDES
the
GuideWINTER 2017
SOULPOWER
The stories behind our great cathedrals
Liverpool – themaking of a city
The horrible history of the Tower of London
INSIDE
BIZARRE STORIES FROM BRITISH HISTORY
SIX SPECIAL PLACES TO VISIT IN THE UKTO DIE FOR
2
ATTRACTIONS | DESTINATIONS | HOTELS
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Taking place in Hall 8 at the NEC inBirmingham on 21-22 March 2018, the show is packed with ideas for day trips,accommodation and places to visit for your group.
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ENGLAND LONDON WALES NORTHERNIRELAND
SCOTLAND GREEN BADGE
This magazine is produced by the British Guild of Tourist Guides – the nationalassociation for Blue Badge Guides (the highest guiding qualification in Britain.)
Email: [email protected] • www.britainsbestguides.org
Editor: Marc Zakian
Publisher:British Guild of Tourist Guides ©2017
Design and print:MYPEC T: +44 113 257 9646 W: www.mypec.co.ukDisplay advertising: Andy Bettley T: +44 7846 979625 [email protected]
Welcome to our magazine, intended to inspireand inform you of this country’s many delights.
As autumn’s colours turn into winter’s long,dark evenings, peer through the mists of time asMarc Zakian digs up extraordinary stories aboutour ancient burial grounds. From Neolithicbarrows to plague burial pits, vaulted crypts tovainglorious monuments, Britain’s churchyardsmake for fascinating exploration.
Our second feature celebrates buildings that aresoaring statements in stone, documenting a livingAge of Faith and communities of the faithful.Cathedrals – as well as churches and other placesof worship of all kinds – are to be experienced onalmost any tour of this country and SophieCampbell’s feature inspires you to discover moreof these wonderful places. From quires to choirs,flying buttresses to fan vaulting, effigies andecclesiastical treasures, each cathedral has auniquely powerful tale to tell. And on this 500thanniversary of Martin Luther’s challenge that ledto the establishment of Protestant churches, whatbetter time to discover the upheavals wrought inthe fabric of many of these historic buildings?
Celebrating individual passions that drive ourBlue Badge guides, our Tours de Force this issuevisit Liverpool and London. Julie Kershaw walksus around Liverpool’s dockside, introducing us tothe original ‘Scousers’ and trade-related historiesthat shaped Liverpool and the north-west. Fromgalleries to museums, shops and restaurants, thedockside is being transformed into a majortourism destination in its own right. Tim Hudsontakes us deep into – and let us hope, safely out of- that notorious place of imprisonment andexecution, the Tower of London. Home today of the stunning Crown Jewels, the Beefeaters, ravens and many other stories and attractions.
I am pleased to see that more and more visitorsare using our website www.britainsbestguides.orgto find the perfect guide for your tours in Britain.‘Find A Tour’ helps you connect quickly with ideasand local guides to bring your tour to life. It sitsalongside ‘Find A Guide’ – connecting you with a selection from 1000 Blue and Green Badgetourist guides – and ‘Book A Tour’ that offers 200tours with easy-to-use online booking andpayment options.
Enjoy discovering more of our great stories in the entertaining company of Britain’s best guides!
Mark King, Chair to the British Guild of Tourist Guides
4 What to see this winterVisit the locations for The Crown; a witchcraft museum in London; a Roman temple returns
6 My Favourite Guides recommend their favourite places to visit
8 Aspire to HeavenBritain’s love affair with cathedrals
14 Legends, Lies and LoreFact and fiction from British history
16 To Die for From tombs to churchyards – the fascinating history of British burial traditions
26 Tour de Force Blue Badge Guide and actor Tim Hudson looks at the history of the Tower of London
30 Tour de Force Blue Badge Guide Julie Kershaw tells us how the Liverpool docks made the city
34 My Favourite Guides recommend their favourite places to visit
Contents
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Front Cover: Marc Zakian Photo: St Paul’s Cathedral
A WARM WELCOME TO ‘THE GUIDE’...
History, Culture and Events NEWS
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BRITAIN’S BEST GUIDES
To find out more or to book: +44 20 7403 1115www.britainsbestguides.org
Richard MaddenSouthern England Blue Badge Guide
Blue Badge Tourist Guides are theofficial, professional tourist guidesof the United Kingdom – recognisedby the local tourist bodies and
VisitBritain. There are over 1000 Blue BadgeGuides in England, Scotland, Wales andNorthern Ireland – each region and nationhas its own badge. They guide in all the UK’smajor tourist attractions, as well as its cities and countryside.
Green Badge Guides have expert local knowledge of particular townsand cities. White Badge Guides
have detailed knowledge of their specific site.
British Guild of Tourist Guides
is the national association of Britain’sguides. Since its foundation in 1950, theGuild has dedicated itself to raising andmaintaining the highest professionalstandards and meeting our visitors’ needs.Our guides work in the UK’s museums,galleries, churches and lead walking,cycling, coach, car and driver-guided toursthroughout the country. Our memberswork in over 30 different languages.
Loseley Park
Eltham Palace, Entrance Hall
Belvoir Castle
In 2017 Guild guidesran over 100,000tours, taking 1.8million visitors tohundreds of placesacross Britain
The new series of the Netflix TVdrama charting the life of QueenElizabeth II begins in December. Thissecond series of The Crown covers thedecade from the mid-1950s to 1960s,following the Queen’s relationshipwith her husband Prince Philip andPrincess Margaret’s glamorous lifewith Lord Snowdon.
The drama features toweringpolitical figures of the era includingWinston Churchill, John F Kennedyand his wife Jackie.
With budgets estimated at £100mper series, filming has taken place atsome iconic British locations.
Ely Cathedral replaced WestminsterAbbey for the wedding of QueenElizabeth and Prince Philip,Lancaster House stands in forBuckingham Palace in both seriesand Loseley Park in Surrey wasused as the home of LordMountbatten. The Art Deco ElthamPalace features as the Queen’squarters on the Royal YachtBritannia, while Belvoir Castle inLeicestershire makes an appearancein series two.
Blue Badge Guides run tours toboth the actual and stand-inlocations featured in The Crown.
The Crownmoves ahead
from around the UK
5
Cornwall’s Museum of Witchcraft and Magic will bepopping up in the capital in November. Founded inthe 1950s and located in Boscastle since the 1960s,the Cornwall museum boasts the world’s largestcollection of spooky artefacts. From November, aselection of these supernatural objects will behosted by the eccentric Viktor Wynd at his Museumof Curiosities in Hackney.
The exhibition features a witch mirror, a waxencurse poppet doll, a dark magician’s altar andvarious recipes for spells and incantations. Also onshow are images from the original founder’scollection made by photographer Sara Hannant –including a life size goat-headed god and a fortune-telling cup and saucer.
The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities is at
11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP.
WITCH WAYTO LONDON
A Roman temple to the god Mithras will be redisplayed thisNovember at a new public museum inside the recentlyopened Bloomberg building in the City of London.
The temple was first uncovered in 1889, but the site wasonly fully excavated after WWII bombing – attracting some400,000 visitors. A 1950s redevelopment offered no spacefor the artefacts and relocated the Mithraeum away fromits setting. The new museum returns the temple to itsoriginal location.
The Bloomberg museum features objects uncovered byarchaeologists during the latest redevelopment. This richand unique collection of finds has been described as the‘Pompeii of the North’ and includes Roman jewellery andshoes as well as a writing tablet featuring the first evermention of London.
For details of visits go to www.londonmithraeum.com
MITHRAS RETURNS
Viktor Wynd
Bloomberg building
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MY FAVOURITEBlue Badge Guides show you theirfavourite places around the UK
6
...is the spectacular, iridescent panorama of under-lit bridgesreflected in the dark waters of the Manchester Ship Canal.
Neon stripes top the TV studios of Media City and a purple hueshines through the perforated steel of The Lowry arts centre.Across the water, the red glow of the air shard of the ImperialWar Museum North rises above film director Danny Boyle’s neonartwork: the word ‘Wonder’ in his own handwriting – a tribute toBritish creativity.
The transformation of the derelict Salford Docks – once thethird busiest port in the country – into this vibrant area on thebanks of the ship canal is known as Manchester Waterfront. It’sin Salford where I was born and bred. Come and see it.
Sue Grimditch, Manchester Green Badge Guidewww.newmanchesterwalks.com
...VIEW
...ACTIVITY...is afternoon tea in the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon at Fortnum& Mason on Piccadilly.
To quote Holly Golightly:“nothing very bad could ever happento you there”. Cocooned in its soothing elegance, one can't helpbut slow down and unwind. Taking time to come together overfood is a ritual that speaks to all cultures and is as old ashumanity itself. With F&M's history, royal warrant andunabashed Britishness, it always goes down a storm with myfriends from overseas. I often recommend a jolly goodafternoon tea as the perfect prefix to an evening at the theatre.
Augusta Harris, London Blue Badge [email protected]
...PLACE...is the most southerly point of Britain, theLizard peninsula in Cornwall – a naturalparadise.
Bizarrely shaped high cliffs (known inCornish as lys ardh) loom high against theturquoise sea. I am always thrilled to seebell heather - Cornwall’s county flower -and the resettled rare Cornish chough whenwalking towards the halfway point of the630 mile long South West Coast Path. Don’tmiss the Lizard lighthouse, Marconi’s firstwireless station at Poldhu Cove and thelifeboat station at Church Cove.
Renate Davie, South West Blue Badge [email protected]
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For further information contact us on:email: [email protected] Tel: +44 207 993 6901
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HEAVEN Aspire to
Sophie Campbellinvestigates ourenduring affairwith great church buildings
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Lincoln Cathedral Nave
St Paul’s Cathedral
One carving atLincoln Cathedral is
of an adulterer’sgenitals.
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbeyfeatures a statue ofWilgefortis, a female saintwith a full beard.
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Half-past seven on a winter’s morning at Lincoln Cathedral and I wasworried. First, I had turned up for Mattins and was not entirely surewhat it was. Second, I was brought up Catholic; was that allowed? Third,and easily the most upsetting, why two ‘t’s? I would spell it ‘Matins’. Wasthat Catholic? Was an extra ‘t’ added at the Reformation?
In the event, Mattins was beautiful and excruciating. Beautiful becausewe read the psalms aloud, up by the altar in that vast medieval building,empty but for the odd swish of a robe or the tinkerings of morningmaintenance. Excruciating because there were only 12 of us, in twofacing double rows, and I was clearly the only incomer.
On the other hand, I have never forgotten it; the courteouspuzzlement of my fellow-worshippers, their utterly English reticenceabout trying to find out who I was later, the lovely cadence of the psalmsand the sense of using the building as it should be used.
It’s the same feeling visitors have when you take them to Evensong atWestminster Abbey or St Paul’s or no doubt any of our great churches,the experience is a world away from the day visit with its millingworshippers, tourists and incessant murmur of audio guides. Participantscome out moved, pensive and usually entranced by the music andsinging. There’s a reason that Evensong causes large queues to form –they’re packed.
There are few things we take more for granted than our cathedrals.Unless it’s our abbeys and minsters. Even in the 21st century they towerover our cities like stone dinosaurs - and I mean that in a good way.Relics of a lost world of masons and wall paintings and stained glass andbelief. The one continuous thread is worship, and in an age of dwindlingcongregations that can feel shouldered aside by secular demands.
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In tourism terms, the 42 Anglicanand 22 Catholic cathedrals of Englandand Wales play a huge role inattracting visitors. While churchattendance dwindles, cathedral visitorfigures are going up: 11.3 millionpeople (more than a quarter ofEngland’s adult population) say theyhave visited a Church of Englandcathedral in the past year for reasonsother than worship – quite aside fromforeign visitors.
Hence, the Chancellor assigning £20million to cathedrals in the 2016budget, and hence Westminster Abbeyembarking on one of the most excitingchurch projects London has seen foryears – the new £18.9 million Queen’sDiamond Jubilee Galleries in thetriforium – at last revealing its pricelesstreasures in a worthy setting.
My favourite cathedrals change allthe time. I love Lincoln for its westfront carved with wyverns, adulterersand the Harrowing of Hell, and insideits cheeky imp peeking down from onhigh; Durham, for its thumpingcolumns and Norman vigour; tiny StDavid’s, low on the Pembrokeshirecoast, originally to avoid the keen eyesof the Vikings; Decorated GothicExeter, wide as a tent with its 50misericords; and Sir Edward Maufe’sGuildford, unprepossessing without,pale and glorious within. And Ely andSouthwark and Wells and Winchesterand Salisbury and Canterbury and St Paul’s.
There are so many more to visit.Coventry, Ripon, Liverpool’s twocathedrals; one Catholic, one Anglican.I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t even
heard of Bristol Cathedral until I readabout it in a book on misericords andnow I’m desperate to go.
But my all-time favourite is St Alban’s; uncompromising Normanpower on a vast scale. This is England’soldest extant cathedral building,consecrated in 1089 (althoughCanterbury was technically foundedfive centuries earlier). It’s a shrine to St Alban, the Roman ‘protomartyr’,who can claim to be Britain’s oldestsaint. It has the longest nave, theoldest crossing tower and,miraculously, surviving medieval wall paintings.
You will all have your own favouritesand your hit list of those you want tosee. Here’s a selection, with somesecret treasures for you to hunt out on your visit.
Durham Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral
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Vaughn Porch, Leicester CathedralYork Minster
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BEST ‘BACKSTAGE’ TOURSHidden Minster Tour, York.Thrice weekly, includes the ChapterHouse roof but, almost morefascinating, the Masons’ Loft, whereyou can touch 1,000 year-old timbersand see a medieval tracery floor.
Winchester Crypt Tour, Hampshire.This explores one of the oldest parts ofthe cathedral, the Norman crypt withits fine, wide vaults, pale stone andAnthony Gormley’s aural installation,Sound II.
Ely Cathedral Towers,Cambridgeshire.Daily tours of either the medievalOctagon Tower or the higher WestTower (or both), the latter gives you acathedral’s-eye view of thesurrounding countryside.
St Paul’s Triforium Tour, City of London. A one-hour spectacle that includes theelegant Geometric Staircase, Wren’s‘Great Model’ and, perhaps best of all,the magnificent library.
Explore one of the oldest partsof the cathedral, the Normancrypt with its fine, wide vaults
Crypt at Winchester
Geometric staircase, St Paul’s Cathedral
Ely Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral has this
epitaph to Thomas Thetcher, who
died in 1764.
Here sleeps in peace a
Hampshire Grenadier,
Who caught his death by drinking
cold small Beer,
An Honest Soldier never is forgot,
Whether he die by Musket or by Pot.
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Blue Badge Guides take tours to most of the cathedrals mentionedhere. In many of the buildings they are the only outside guides allowedto escort visitors. To find a guide visit: www.britainsbestguides.org
When William Longespée’s
tomb at Salisbury Cathedral
was opened in 1791, the
corpse of a rat carrying traces
of arsenic was found inside
his skull. The rat is on display
at the Salisbury Museum.
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Lego Cathedral, DurhamWells clock
Salisbury Cathedral
BEST ARTEFACTSThe Mappa Mundi, Hereford.England’s largest surviving medievalmap is drawn on vellum, dates back toaround 1300 and shows the history,geography and world view ofcontemporary Christendom.
Richard III Tomb, Leicester. The contemporary sarcophagus of the(in)famous Yorkist king, whose bodywas discovered under a nearby councilcar park, formerly a friary, in 2012.
Magna Carta, Salisbury. The best of four surviving copies of thefirst edition of the 1215 Great Charter,sealed by a reluctant King John atRunnymede and written by scribes forgeneral dissemination.
Wells Cathedral Clock, Somerset.This 1390s clock face is the mostcharming to survive in Britain. It still works and has two faces, oneinterior, one exterior. The sun andmoon revolve around the earth and jousting knights mark the quarter hours.
Tudor misericords, Bristol. 28 wonderfully-carved 16th-centuryscenes survive beneath the stalls in thechoir, despite nineteenth-centuryreconstruction, and are famous fortheir animals and saucy vignettes.
BEST NOVELTIESBishop Langton’s Legs, Canterbury.Langton was Archbishop of Canterburyand enemy of King John in the early1200s. A cathedral rebuild left hisentombed feet protruding from anexterior wall.
Diver Memorial, Winchester.Look for the small bronze memorial to the deep-sea diver William Walker,who spent six years in the early 1900s underpinning the floodedcathedral foundations.
Blue Peter bosses, York.68 medieval bosses were lost in the1984 South Transept fire. Six of thereplacements were designed by youngBlue Peter viewers to mark 20th-century achievements, such as savingthe whale and space travel.
LEGO Cathedral, Durham.The three-year construction of this 12foot long scale model was completedin July 2016 and each brick raised £1for the Open Treasure exhibition space.See it in the Undercroft foyer.
Southwark Cathedral cat.Look out for self-possessed DoorkinsMagnificat, resident tabby cat since2008 and possessor of more chairsthan the Bishop – as well as her owntwitter feed @DoorkinsM.
Westminster Abbey. Is scheduled to open the Queen’sDiamond Jubilee Galleries in June2018 in the triforium – the uppergallery 70 feet above the nave –hitherto unseen by the general public.Fingers crossed for medieval helmetsof the Knights of the Bath, the funeraleffigy of Mary Tudor and thecoronation book of rules, the LiberRegalis, first used when the child brideof Richard II, Anne of Bohemia, wascrowned in 1382, but all this and moreis still to be confirmed next year.
St Paul’s Cathedralhas a small woodencarving of spaceship.
York Minster is the onlyCathedral in the UK that putsmistletoe as well as holly on
its altar at Christmas.Mistletoe is connected withBritain’s pagan Druid past.
www.shakespearesrosetheatre.com
0844 844 0444**Calls cost up to 7p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge. Booking fees apply.
@shakespearesrosetheatre @ShakespearesRT
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PLAN TOSABOTAGE
THE NAZIS
Spike Hitler’s food
Rain glue on Nazi troops
Drop boxes of poisonous
snakes on troops
Deploy a Catherine wheel
FACTS AND
LIELEGEN
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On 28 January 1896, Walter Arnold became the first Britishmotorist to be charged for speeding. He was tearing along at8mph – the legal limit was 2mph – when he was pursued andcaught by a policeman riding a bicycle!
A fine time to be
BITE BEACHES
We shallthem on the
Keep the
asp-idistra flying
alive
During WWII, British secret agents
came up with several extraordinary
plans to sabotage the Nazis. These
included spiking Hitler’s food with
female hormones to change him
into a woman; raining glue on Nazi
troops in an attempt to stick them to
the ground; dropping boxes of
poisonous snakes among enemy
troops; and deploying a giant water-
borne Catherine wheel full of
explosives – dubbed the Great
Panjandrum – for an assault on the
Normandy coast.
Winston Churchill’s weapon of choice was hisfalse teeth.
The Prime Minster would flick out his dentureswhen he was angry and throw them across theroom – people could tell how the war was goingby how far they flew. Winston wanted hisinstantly recognisable voice to stay that way, sohe had his dentures designed to preserve hisdistinctive lisp.
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FICTION FROM BRITISH HISTORY
ES,AND
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Charles II was known as Charles III. His mistress Nell Gwynncalled him that because she already had two lovers calledCharles. Nell had two sons with the king. According tolegend, one day Charles came to visit and Nell shouted totheir son: “Come here you little bastard and say hello to yourfather”. When the King protested she replied: “Your Majestyhas given me no other name by which to call him”. Charlespromptly titled the boy Earl of Burford.
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THE LATEQUEENThe Queen Mother once secretly turned up to see her own funeral.Rehearsals took place every six months in the decades before herdeath in 2002.
During the 16th century there were fabric shadeswith names such as puke, goose turd, deadSpaniard and dying monkey. Puke was dirty
brown, goose turd was yellowish-green and deadSpaniard was pale greyish-tan.
RIGHT CHARLIE
Off Colour
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TO DIE FOR Marc Zakian digs upextraordinary storiesabout our burial grounds
Cheddar Gorge
From ancient tombs to graveyards, Britain’sburial grounds tell a fascinating story. There are 15 dead Britons for every one living. Morethan half a billion souls, entombed acrosslandscapes, graveyards, churches andcemeteries. Their lives are part of our historyand their resting places and memorials at theheart of every city and village in the country
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THE HOLE STORY1n 1793 two young men chased a rabbit into a hole in the Mendip Hills.Digging down to follow the creature, they were amazed to find themselves inan underground passage leading to a lofty cavern. They had stumbled on Aveline Hole, a cave crowded with skeletons all carefully placed side byside some 10,000 years ago. It is Britain’s earliest known cemetery.
Nearby Gough’s Cave is home to another Stone Age skeleton. Known as‘Cheddar Man’ - named for the gorge, not a penchant for cheese – this ancientBriton was buried alone in the chamber around 7100 BCE, possibly after being murdered.
ROMAN AROUND“To the spirits of the dead. For Lucius Annaius Firmius, who lived five years,two months, six days, six hours.”
This epitaph is found on a 1,800 year-old Roman tombstone in Oxford’sAshmolean Museum. It was not from the boy’s family, but from his owner toher ‘dearest household slave’. Lucius’s story endures because the Romansbrought writing to Britain, inscribing their names, ages and achievements onhundreds of surviving tombstones.
One of the most spectacular of these Romano-British tombs was uncoveredin London in 1999. This perfectly preserved skeleton of a wealthy youngwoman was sealed inside a decorated lead coffin and stone sarcophagus.Nicknamed the ‘Roman Princess’, she died in London around 350 CE and wasburied just outside the city walls, as was Roman custom. The coffin is nowdisplayed in the Museum of London.
Her funeral would have been a lavish ceremony, the body carried on a bier, herfamily following behind with mimes, musicians and professional mourners –banshees who would wail, rip out their hair and scratch and beat their faces.Roman funerals were frequently more extravagant than their weddings.
Roman funeral traditions have remained with us for two thousand years. They cremated or buried their dead, read eulogies, built tombs andsarcophagi (literally a ‘flesh-eating’ coffin), held wakes, offered mourningfeasts and commemorations.
Known as ‘Cheddar Man’ –named for the gorge, not apenchant for cheese – thisancient Briton was buried
alone in the chamber around 7100 BCE, possibly
after being murdered
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Hampstead Mound. Is Boadicea buried here?
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BARROW BOYSThe Berkshire Downs are home to aphantom blacksmith. According tolegend, when a passing horse loses itsshoe the rider should leave the animalat Wayland’s ancient stone monumentwith a few coins. On return, thehorseman will find the money gone and the horse newly shod.
The mysteries of Wayland’s Smithygo back to the Stone Age. Built in 3500BCE as a burial site, it is part of themagnificent Severn-Cotswold series of
Neolithic burial barrows.The best preserved is West Kennet
Long Barrow. Taking 15,700 people-hours to build and used for over amillennium, the barrow once houseddozens of burials tucked into stoneniches, their bones sometimesremoved from the bodies for display.
West Kennet is part of a Neolithiclandscape that includes the largestman-made mound in Europe atSilbury Hill. As tall and ancient as theEgyptian pyramids, it is encircled byburial monuments.
There are thousands of Bronze Agebarrows across England – somestanding solitary in farmers’ fields,others secreted in our cities. AtLondon’s Hampstead Heath there is agrave mound intriguingly namedBoadicea’s Grave. Is the legendaryCeltic warrior buried here? Sadly not,she died 1000 years after the barrowwas built.
A DEVIL OF A TIMEWhen John Trevelyan died in 1492 itcost £4 to feed the mourners. Therewere the bell ringers at £1.10s (themore rings, the quicker you got toheaven), wax candles at £1.6s, £2 forthe wine and the priest’s oil at £4(priests were forbidden to charge for a funeral, but made good money onthe sundries).
The deceased would need a grave –8d for an adult, 4d for a child, 180d fora spot by the altar – and a monument,£8 for a simple brass and marblefigure. All this added up to around ayear’s income for the average medievalcitizen, but was money well spent – a
good Christian funeral protectedyour soul from the devil.
Large churchesmonopolised their lucrativeburial rights, so anybodywho died in a remote parishhad to be brought to themother church. This couldinvolve journeys over milesof hilly countryside.
To make it easier,
Better to beburied with your
feet facing eastand on the south
side of the church.Lucifer stalks thedark and sinisternorth side, where
outcasts ormurderers wereoften interred.
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Death of Prince Albert
churches created ‘corpse roads’.Traces of these may still be foundacross Britain, public paths withnames such as ‘Church-way’ or‘Kirk-way Field’ are signs of formerfunerary roads.
The Lake District has an old corpseroad leading from Swindale to ShapAbbey – the last body was bornedown this track in 1736. The nearbyfuneral way running from Rydal toAmbleside still has its coffin stone,where the body was placed whiletired pall-bearers rested.
The ‘Lych way’ is a track south-west of Devil’s Tor on Dartmoor inDevon. The deceased from remotemoorland homesteads were takenalong this track to Lydford church forburial. There are legends of phantomfuneral processions stalking this pathat night.
A GRAVE SITUATIONEnon Chapel opened near London’sStrand in 1832. Underneath was a 29 x 59ft crypt where some 12,000bodies were interred, with only awooden floor between the vaults and worshippers above.
The chapel’s minister offeredbargain basement burials until ascandal broke in 1844. A dustmanadmitted to removing loads of‘waste’ from the crypt. The buildingwas sold to new owners whopromoted musical evenings titled:
Dancing on the Dead, admission 3d.The Enon scandal was a
consequence of overcrowdedchurchyards. During the IndustrialRevolution more people died inrapidly growing cities than werebaptised and the parish burialgrounds became full. Parliamentresponded by passing an Act‘establishing cemeteries for theInterment of the Dead’ and thesuburban cemetery was born.
Victorian entrepreneurs tookadvantage of this opportunity. An advertisement in The Timesoffered six classes of funerals, from£21 for a first-class burial down to£3/5s for sixth class. Prices could bereduced ‘by dispensing with thefuneral cortege through the streets of London.’ Instead, the NecropolisCompany would transport the coffinby special train.
In medieval times when
someone died, thefamily would placebread on the body.
They paid a local sineater to eat the bread,symbolically takingon the departed’s
sins. The lastrecorded sin eater, a
Shropshire mancalled Richard
Munslow, continuedthe tradition until his
death in 1906.
During the MiddleAges, people whoattended church to
chant the funeral ritewere known as placebo
singers. In the 1330s,Chaucer noted thatsome people were
doing this just to get afree meal. So funeral
crashers becameknown as placebos –people who deceived
to please.
Victorian funeral card
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magnificent combination ofnational monuments, listedbuildings, works of art, urbanparks, wildlife sanctuaries andcommemorations
LONDON’S HIGHGATE CEMETERY opened in1839 and was rescued from decay in the 1970s, its170,000 burials include world famous writers, artistsand industrialists. Karl Marx’s tomb has inspiredmany a radical’s pilgrimage, literary burials includeGeorge Eliot and science fiction novelist DouglasAdams, while punk-rock impresario MalcolmMcLaren and actor Sir Ralph Richardson head up acast of show biz stars. The leafy and atmospheric WestSide is the resting place of pre-Raphaelite museElizabeth Siddal, physicist Michael Faraday, CharlesCruft of dog show fame and painter Lucian Freud.
BUNHILL FIELDS has some of history’s mostradical figures lying in its unhallowed grounds.Founded in the 1660s as a cemetery for Nonconformistsand Dissenters, it packed 120,000 bodies into its fouracres. Burials include Pilgrim’s Progress author JohnBunyan, Robinson Crusoe creator Daniel Defoe andvisionary poet and artist, William Blake.
GOLDERS GREEN started in 1902 as London’s firstcrematorium (cremation was illegal in Britain until1885). Open to all faiths and non-believers, it featuresJapanese gardens, tea-rooms andmany listed buildings. Its urnscontain the ashes of Draculawriter Bram Stoker, actor andcomedian Peter Sellers andfather of modernpsychoanalysis, SigmundFreud. There are memorialsto pop star Marc Bolan of T Rex and Keith Moon of The Who.
KENSAL GREENsits alongside theGrand Union canal –there were plans tobring funerals in onboats. It includes theburials of engineerIsambard KingdomBrunel, writers WilliamMakepeace Thackerayand Anthony Trollope,computer pioneerCharles Babbage anda memorial to Queen singer,Freddie Mercury.
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Mourning brooch with lock of hair
The rathercharming gateway
to parish churches isknown as a lychgate.
Lych is the oldEnglish word forcorpse. Before thedevelopment of
mortuaries, the deadwere placed on a bier
and taken to thelychgate – oftenguarded against
bodysnatchers – untilthe funeral service.
Funeral Procession
The London Necropolis Railway ran from Waterloo toBrookwood Cemetery in Surrey between 1854 to 1941. At itspeak it carried more than 2,000 bodies a year. Guests couldleave with their dearly departed at 11:40am, attend the burial,have a funeral party at one of the cemetery’s two trainstations (complete with home-cooked ham sandwiches and fairy cakes) and then take the same train back to Londonby 3:30pm.
These Victorians kept a precise mourning etiquette. Curtainswould be drawn, clocks stopped at the time of death andmirrors draped or turned to the wall. A wreath tied with blackribbons was hung on the front door to alert neighbours. Thelength of mourning for a widow, widower, child or parent wasabsolute: deep mourning for two years followed by a periodof half-mourning with strict codes of dress.
Victorian Britain was in an almost permanent state of grief. Only two out of ten babies reached their secondbirthdays and most parents would expect to bury at least onechild. This was reflected in art – a popular subject forpaintings was the bereaved parent – in tokens, such as a lockof your loved one’s hair carried in a cameo, or even a postmortem family photo with the deceased.
The Queen herself became a national symbol of mourning.Following the premature death of Prince Albert in 1861,Victoria turned grief into the chief concern of her existence.She disappeared from public view, wore widow’s black for therest of her life and insisted on a statue of Albert featuring inall family portraits. For many people her morbid obsessionwas too much – with the queen’s passing in 1901 and the lossof a generation of young men during the First World War, theBritish way of death could no longer consume so much of life.
Artist model Lizzy Siddal overdosed
on laudanum in 1862. Hergrieving husband, painter
Dante Gabriel Rossetti,placed a poetry manuscript
in his wife’s coffin. ButRossetti’s agent wanted topublish the poem and they
arranged for her coffin to beexhumed. Siddal’s body wasfound perfectly preserved,her beauty intact and her
coppery hair still growing,filling the coffin. The
manuscript was retrieved,although a worm had
burrowed through the book.
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Malcolm McLaren gravestonewith death mask
The leafy and atmospheric West Side is the resting place of pre-Raphaelite muse Elizabeth Siddal, physicist Michael Faraday,
Charles Cruft of dog show fame and painter Lucian FreudMarx Tomb, Highgate
BROMPTON CEMETERYholds hundreds of Victorians.Alongside them are the graves ofseveral First Nations Americanperformers who died whileperforming in London as part ofBuffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Thecemetery is the resting place ofsuffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, andwriter Beatrix Potter who lived nearbyand took the names of some of hercharacters from tombstones, includingMr Nutkins, Mr Brock, Jeremiah Fisherand even a Peter Rabbett. TheVictorians believed that Brompton’sEgyptian style Courtoy tomb was, in fact, a time machine.
ABNEY PARK’S woody expansecontains an arboretum and cemetery. It holds the graves of William Booth –founder of The Salvation Army – andmany protagonists of the anti-slaverymovement. The lion tamer FrankBostock’s glorious memorial is a much-loved local landmark.
CROSSBONES GRAVEYARDis a pauper’s burial site. While wealthyLondoners were memorialised in grandgraveyards, the poor were interred withnothing to mark their passing. Thissouth London backstreet has become afocal point for such unknown souls.Recorded in 1598 as a burial ground for‘single women’. This is a euphemismfor the prostitutes who worked in thebrothels and stews that ran along thesouth side of the river Thames. Denieda Christian burial, Crossbones was theirfinal resting place.
ST MARY’S CHURCH INWHITBY, YORKSHIREis a medieval graveyard that was the inspiration and setting for BramStoker’s Dracula. One of its gravesbelongs to Mr and Mrs Huntrodd. Both were born on September 19 1600, and both died September 19 1680 within five hours of each other. The 19 September is known as Huntrodd’s Day.
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22Courtoy Tomb, Brompton Cemetery – is this a time machine?
Crossbones Graveyard
The Victorians believed thatBrompton’s Egyptian style Courtoy
tomb was, in fact, a time machine
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Marc Bolan, Golders Green
Bostock lion memorial, Abney Park, Stoke Newington
WOLVERCOTE CEMETERYin Oxford houses the grave of Lord ofthe Rings writer, JRR Tolkien. Buriedwith his beloved wife, theirgravestones marked with the namesLúthien and Beren, characters fromTolkien’s Middle-Earth fantasy.
HOLYWELL CEMETERYclose to Wolvercote, is the restingplace of Kenneth Grahame, author ofThe Wind in the Willows. A few miles
from Oxford is the small parish churchof Bladon whose graveyard holds themodest grave of Winston Churchill.
GLASGOW NECROPOLISis known for its architecturalmonuments. According to legend its37-acre landscape is a symbol ofFreemasonry and the signs of thissecret group may be found scatteredthroughout the site. It features thegrave of cabinet maker and poet
William Miller, who wrote thechildren’s nursery rhyme Wee Willie Winkie.
REILIG ODHRÁIN on the remoteisland of Iona, is Scotland’s mostevocative graveyard. The cemetery,stands next to the Abbey and holdsthe bones of 48 Scottish kings,including Macbeth (1005-1057), themurderer and usurper in WilliamShakespeare’s eponymous tragedy.
Find an expert Blue Badge guide to show you the locationsfeatured in this article at www.britainsbestguides.org
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Iona AbbeyWilliam Miller memorial, Glasgow
25Anthony van Dyck, Charles I in Three Positions (detail), 1635-6. Oil on canvas, 84.4 x 99.4 cm. RCIN 405768. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017
Free entry for Friends of the RA
27 January — 15 April 2018Exhibition organised in partnership with
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Tim Hudson first encountered the dark side of the Towerof London in 1990. As an actor performing in Sir ThomasMore he was given private access to the Bell Tower, whereMore was imprisoned before his execution in 1535.
“It was a sobering experience,” Tim recalls. “The Towercan chill your soul; the frowning battlements, the dankdungeons and Traitors’ Gate, that one-way portal to alonely cell where you rot with no reprieve – the cold wallsclosing in around you.”
Tim became intimately acquainted with the building in2002 when – after a career as an actor that included fouryears with the Royal Shakespeare Company – he qualifiedas a London guide. “Having ‘appeared in the Tower’ inShakespeare’s plays, there was a fascinating familiarity tothe place when I studied there for my Blue Badge.”
“Many of the Bard’s most murderous stories place theircharacters in the Tower. None more horrifying than the
story of the two princes. 12-year old King Edward V andhis nine-year old brother were taken to the tower for‘safekeeping’ by their trusted uncle Richard. There wasnothing outwardly sinister about this as the building wasa royal palace in the 15th century. But the boys soon‘disappeared’ and their uncle was crowned as KingRichard III.
“When a medieval wall was demolished in 1674 itrevealed two skeletons beneath a staircase in the WhiteTower. King Charles II declared them to be the bodies ofthe princes and they were removed to WestminsterAbbey’s Innocents’ Corner.
“What actually happened to the princes is one ofhistory’s great unsolved mysteries. Tudor writers – Shakespeare included – maintained that evil uncleRichard murdered the boys to clear his path to the throne.But as a member of the Richard III society, I believe it was
Blue BadgeGuide and actorTim Hudsonlooks at thehorrible historyof the Tower of London
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one of the other candidates. It couldwell have been Henry Tudor, the futureKing Henry VII, who had just as muchto gain by the death of the princes as Richard.
“Richard’s brother, the Duke ofClarence also met a gruesome end inthe Tower. Condemned by parliamentin 1478 for plotting against his brotherKing Edward IV, in a medieval mafia-type execution he was drowned in abutt of Malmsey, his favourite wine.And Edward may have ordered themurder of his distant cousin KingHenry VI in the Wakefield Tower; Tudorpropagandists blamed their favouritebogey man Richard for the killing.
“One Tower killing Richard wasdefinitely involved in was that of LordHastings. In 1483 he walked into whathe thought was a routine councilmeeting called by Richard. Hastingsleft the chamber a few hours later as aprisoner. His execution on TowerGreen was such a hasty affair thatthere was no scaffold and his head
was struck off on a lump of wood – thefirst of the seven beheadings that tookplace inside the Tower.
“The most notorious of these‘private’ Tower executions was that ofAnne Boleyn. The second wife of KingHenry VIII was accused of having anaffair with her brother and a courtmusician – almost certainly trumped-up charges.
“Most traitors were beheaded withan axe, but having lived in France as ayoung woman, Anne asked Henry the‘favour’ of sending for the Calais publicexecutioner. The English axeman wasoften a drunken apprentice butcherand Anne wanted a quick dispatch.Henry paid 10,000 gold crowns for theFrench swordsman to come to Londonand sweep off his wife’s head in oneblow. Her body was thrown into anarrow chest and buried in the Towerchapel St Peter ad Vincula.
“Henry’s fifth wife was the next tolose her head. The teenage CatherineHoward had married the gouty,ulcerated king with a 48 inch belly –you can verify the size of his stomachby checking out his armour on show inthe White Tower. Imprudently, if notunexpectedly, she had an affair with ayoung courtier. She paid the price onTower Green in 1542.
“Tower Green continued to dispatchEnglish queens. In February 1554 LadyJane Grey, pushed onto the throne forjust nine days, witnessed the headlesscorpse of her teenage husband cartedbelow her prison window. A shortwhile later the 17-year old was herselfbeheaded, a victim of Tudor politics.
“But the most gruesome killing onTower Green was poor Margaret Pole,Countess of Salisbury. Henry VIII could
not get his hands on her troublesomeson, so he went for the 67-year oldmother. Margaret – the daughter ofthat Duke of Clarence drowned in theMalmsey butt – suffered horribly at thehands of an inexperienced axe-man, ‘awretched and blundering youth… whohacked her head and shoulders topieces in the most pitiful manner’.
“The last person to be executed bybeheading in Britain was Towerprisoner Simon, Lord Lovat. The 80-year old, gout-ridden arthritic couldbarely walk to the scaffold. On the dayof his execution in 1747 so manyspectators arrived at Tower Hill that anovercrowded timber stand collapsed,leaving nine spectators dead – much tothe Jacobite lord’s wry amusement.
“The final Tower execution tookplace in 1941. At 7.12am on the 15th of
It’s strange to think that Lovat and Jakobswere executed when the Tower was already a tourist attraction. Their stories are part of its attraction
Tower Green
Traitor’s Gate
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For a Tower tour with Tim Hudson email [email protected] Badge guides are the only external guides with the privilege ofguiding inside the Tower of London.
August the German Second World War spy Josef Jakobs was shot on therifle range in the moat – the only spyto be killed by firing squad, as mostwere hanged.
“It’s strange to think that Lovat andJacobs were executed when the Towerwas already open to tourists. Theirstories are part of its attraction – atheatrical mix of horror and history.”
History will meet showbiz thisChristmas for Tim’s annual appearancein panto. When he starred as Sarah theCook in the 2008 Reading Hexagonproduction of Dick Whittington, hisfinale costume was the White Towerwith a Tower Bridge hat. This seasonTim will be appearing as a Dame in theCroydon Panto. Will he include anycheeky references to the Tower ofLondon? Oh yes he will!
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Blue Badge GuideJulie Kershaw tells us how theLiverpool dockswere the makingof her city
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SEA CHANGEIn 1935 Julie Kershaw’s grandfatherhitched a ride on a milk cart headingout of North Wales. He took his five-year old son – Julie’s father – with him.Like thousands of others in DepressionBritain, they were on their way toLiverpool in search of a job.
“It’s the story of our city,” says Julie.“The nickname for Liverpudlians isScouser. This comes from Lobscouse, a stew cooked by sailors who wouldchuck anything they could eat into acommunal pot – a perfect moniker,because Liverpool is a melting-pot ofpeople from all over the world.
“Evidence of this history iseverywhere: in the rows of streetsnamed after Welsh towns – so manycame that by 1813 one in tenLiverpudlians was Welsh – and in theIrish ancestry of the city’s most famoussons, Lennon and McCartney. Duringthe 19th century potato famine,thousands fled Ireland for the nearestEnglish port, Liverpool. We joke thatthe Scouse accent is a mixture ofWelsh, Irish and catarrh.
“It was the docks that brought themhere. Originally established in
medieval times as the Lyver Pool –nobody is sure what the Lyver partmeans – in 1715 immigrant navviesdug out the world’s first commercialwet dock. By the early 19th century40% of the world’s trade passedthrough Liverpool’s docks.
“The boom began during one of the most troubling periods in history.The city became the centre of theBritish slave trade, with nearly half ofall slaves traded between Africa andthe Americas transported on Liverpoolships. The brutal business made thecity rich, this was reflected in the TownHall; part paid for by slavers’ fortunes,it is decorated with a frieze mappingthe trading routes, including images of lions, crocodiles, elephants andAfrican faces.
“The city commemorates this legacy at the International SlaveryMuseum. Opened in 2007 to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolitionof slave trading in the British Empire, it stands near the docks where theslaving boats moored – the onlymuseum of international slavery in the world.
Faces on Town Hall, Liverpool
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“A small number of slaves cameashore in Liverpool, where as freemen they joined the oldest blackcommunity in the UK, firstestablished in the 1730s. Chinesesailors also arrived, setting upEurope’s first Chinatown near the Anglican Cathedral.
“During the Second World Warsome 6,000 Liverpool Chinesemariners served in the UK merchantfleet. They were poorly treated andpaid less than half their Britishcounterparts. In 1945 the Britishgovernment began to forciblyrepatriate the Chinese Scousers.Many had a locally-born wife andchildren – a husband or father wholeft the house in the morning andnever returned. This only came tolight in recent years, and in 2006 thecouncil placed a plaque at the pierhead commemorating their story.
“The docks always dealt harshlywith people. Charles Dickens came
to Liverpool to research a sketch ofVictorian working life. The writerenrolled as special constable toexplore the crimp houses, notoriouslodgings where sailors on shore leavewere routinely robbed and press-ganged into military service.
“Dickens’ contemporary, theAmerican writer Herman Melvillealso came. He was astounded by thewondrous expanse of docks and wasamazed to observe black men freelychatting with white women. Yetwhen Melville peered into a cellar to find a woman and her childrenstarving to death, his plea to a local policeman to help them went unheeded.
“This was the reality of life on theport in Liverpool. A docker’s lifehung on the whims of the foremen.At the start of the working day thestevedores were corralled in penswaiting to be given the nod for a halfday’s work. Foremen were easily
corrupted with a few pints orbackhanders – if you were not infavour your family went without.
“While working conditionsimproved during the 20th century,the dockers’ world started to change.Cranes and containers replaced thestevedores and by 1972, the port inthe centre of Liverpool had closed.There was even a proposal in the 70sto demolish the mighty Albert Dockand turn it into car park.
“During the 80s things began toimprove. The Albert Dock re-emerged in 1984 with upmarkethotels, restaurants and five museums– the greatest concentration of GradeI listed buildings in the country.
“It is part of a UNESCO-designatedWorld Heritage Site celebrating thecity’s maritime history, includingthose great symbols of the city: theLiver Buildings. Built in the early1900s and known as the ‘ThreeGraces’, they include the Cunard
building – a reminder that this wasonce the number one passenger portin the world.
“But while the rich cruised the seasin style, down in steerage some ninemillion people were leaving for a lifein the New World. Some went on tofame, others to infamy – celebratedbandit ‘Butch’ Cassidy’s grandfatherarrived in America after departingfrom the Liverpool docks.
“Waving them goodbye were theLiver Birds. These imposingmythological stone creatures on topof the Liver Buildings – part eagle,part cormorant – are the symbol ofthis city. Some Scousers say that theyare females looking out to seawaiting for their men to return,others claim they are phoenixesoverseeing the revival of the docks.For all of us, they are the beatingheart of our revitalised docklands,watching over Britain’s first evermulticultural city.”
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For a tour of Liverpool docks with Julie go towww.britainsbestguides.org/guides/julie-kershaw
Albert Dock
The Three Graces
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MY FAVOURITEBlue Badge Guides show you theirfavourite places around the UK
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...is The Angel of the North, an epic 200ft sculpture built on thesite of Team Colliery that closed in the 1960s. The figuresymbolises exiting the darkness of the pit into the light above andthe rebirth and regeneration of the North East.
The sculpture is on the edge of the A1 – the main road comingnorth into Newcastle and Gateshead. It was erected in 1998, just afew months after my daughter was born, and as a child shealways used to play ‘spot the Angel’ on our journeys, so for me itrepresents ‘coming home’.
The figure is seen by around 100,000 people daily and is said tobe the most viewed public piece of art in the UK. Some remark that it doesn’t look much like an angel, but its sculptor AnthonyGormley explained: “No one has ever seen an Angel, so we have to keep imagining”.
Laura Rhodes, North East Blue Badge [email protected]
...VIEW
...is Malham Cove in the YorkshireDales. A huge limestone amphitheatre300m wide and 80m high, formed by acliff at the Mid Craven fault graduallybeing eroded back by glacial meltwater.
The views from the top downMalhamdale with its miles of dry stonewalls, old barns and fields of sheep arestunning. It is also one of the bestexamples of limestone pavement in thecountry. They even filmed one of thescenes in Harry Potter and the DeathlyHallows – Part 1 up there! It’s a mustfor visitors to Yorkshire.
Tim Barber, Yorkshire Blue Badge [email protected]
...PLACE
...SHIP...is Bristol’s museum ship The SS GreatBritain. Launched in July 1843, it was thelargest iron-hulled, screw-propellerdriven steamship in the world – designedby the diminutive engineering giantIsambard Kingdom Brunel.
The Great Britain was pioneering,making regular sailings to New York forjust over a year and then to Australia for24 years. It is estimated that 250,000Australians have ancestors who arrivedon the Great Britain. The ship is atestament to Bristol’s shipbuildingtraditions and to her 1,000 year history as a port. But for me the Great Britainrepresents Bristol’s energy, her outward-facing attitude and interest in the world.
Robert Collin, South West Blue Badge Guide
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