General news, notifications, announcements, and requests from the Friends of Hull General Cemetery
Here’s the link to the latest issue of the Hull Hub. It features the work of the Friends on page 11. Enjoy.
Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.
On the 14th December Council officers paid a visit to the site. Jennifer Woollin, a City Council Ecologist and Adam McArthur, an Open Spaces Development Officer. They said that they were responding to a complaint. Both of them were initially taken aback at how clear the area behind the shops on Princes Avenue was now. They said they had not visited the site for over a year and, it is beginning to look a little different in there now.
The volunteers were advised by Adam about the planning permission needed to cutback within a conservation area. He was satisfied that the volunteers were working within those restrictions.
They were informed that no work was to be undertaken in the far north corner of the site. This is, at present, a large area of blackberry bushes. Below is an photograph of it in 1996. The officers were pleased with this decision. Two ash trees close by are to be felled by the Council after Xmas they said. This was due to resident complaints.
The INCA report of 2010 was discussed.
Bill Longbone said that the volunteers would like to place a wildlife pond but the idea had been discouraged. This was due to the potential health and safety issues. Jennifer thought it was a good idea and advised that a formal application should be made.
The volunteers gave the representatives a guided walk around the cemetery, and they were genuinely impressed with the improvements that the volunteers had undertaken. We identified the problems with the muddy paths, and that we were continually spreading chippings to keep the paths passable. Andy stated that he would arrange for the council to deliver chippings to the site. This would allow the volunteers to spread them. This would save the volunteers time in chipping.
The officers were shown the ‘butterfly area and plaque, the hawthorn/buckthorn plantings, plaque and owl boxes. All of which were well received by the officers.
Both Jenny & Adam suggested that we should remove ivy from headstones and ‘specimen’ trees, but should generally leave it on other trees. They also recommended that much of the ground ivy, and sycamore saplings be cut back. This would encourage light and the diversity of plants and wildlife. They were in agreement with the recommendation of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust that we should create open glade areas to let in light.
We advised that the Friends had done a provisional tree survey in the cemetery, and of our ambition to plot these on a GPS digital map. Adam confirmed that he had such a map, and would undertake a detailed survey of the trees.
In summary, what could have been a tense meeting turned out very well. The officers were pleased with what the Friends were doing. They were satisfied that we were ‘environmentally and ecologically aware’. The officers offered their help and assistance in obtaining advice on planting and encouraged us to apply for ‘planting grants’ from the council. They also said to submit the proposal for the pond with their support.
In conclusion, Jennifer Woollin said, “One of the visions for the management plan and this city is the designation of additional Local Nature Reserves. General Cemetery has always been on my radar and the FOGC are clearly establishing well and community involvement is essential.”
Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.
Once again the work that the Friends of Hull General Cemetery are doing in the cemetery has been recognised locally. KCOM hold a competition every year. They allocate an amount of money for good causes. KCOM ask the causes to send them a description of what work they are doing. They also ask what they would use the money for if they won. After that, just like Strictly, it goes to the public vote.
I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that the FOHGC was successful and was one of the winners this year. The grant, for £540, was given for, ‘Transforming the cemetery into a welcoming space for visitors and a haven for nature.’
The brief, provided by Bill Longbone to the judges at KCOM, was,
‘We are a local group of volunteers who have taken the challenge to reclaim the disused and overgrown Victorian Cemetery which, over the years, had become a place for fly-tipping and rubbish dumping and has attracted much anti-social behaviour, including drug dealing, prostitution and drinking dens.
It is our aim to turn the cemetery into an area that will benefit the local community, improve the neighbourhood and create a unique asset for our city. This is to be achieved by clearing the cemetery of rubbish, fallen tree branches and invasive ground cover thus encouraging a diversity of plants, insects and wildlife.
We wish to promote educational research, a healthy relaxing environment and encourage leisure activities such as painting, photography, mindfulness classes in the cemetery and engage with local people and businesses.
To date we have created a circular pathway around the cemetery, installed over 20 litter bins along the pathways, created a Workhouse Memorial Area, a wildflower meadow, a butterfly walk, made and installed over 40 bird boxes, two owl boxes, several bat boxes and six hedgehog boxes to encourage wildlife. We have also planted over a 1000 daffodil bulbs along the Spring Bank West frontage. We also clean and maintain graves, including the Commonwealth War Graves and headstones, and research the people buried in the cemetery.
We are currently reclaiming the two acre section of the cemetery that backs onto the Princes Avenue shops, which over recent areas had become badly overgrown. It is our intention to create a wildlife pond in this area which will attract many species, such as toads, frogs, newts as well as many water-loving insects that do not currently inhabit the cemetery because of the lack of water.’
Once again, its much appreciated that the work the dedicated, small team of volunteers are doing should be recognised more widely in the city. We thank KCOM for their support, and of course the general public who voted for us. That the FOHGC were successful in this just boosts the confidence of all of us connected with this project.
Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.
Perhaps a little over the top as a headline, but what with the recent furore on the Facebook site, it’s probably time to clear the mystique around this shadowy group and their intentions.This is a short account of how the FOHGC arrived at this point. I hope it proves informative.
Firstly, let’s go back in time a little. The FOHGC is not the first group that wants to protect the cemetery from the various problems that it suffers from. By my reckoning it’s at least the third incarnation, and there may well have been a fourth in the early 1990’s but I have had difficulty tracing anything about that grouping.
I intend to write a fuller history of the original grouping for the site in the future. This grouping was known as The Spring Bank Cemetery Action Group. Full of interesting characters it deserves a chapter in itself.
The middle group was a short run affair. It was begun in November 2007 from a general meeting attended by councillors and council officers. At the meeting 18 residents of the area turned up. Unlike today, after a decade of austerity induced cuts to council funding, the proposals were quite generous. Big plans were formulated. A gravel company was approached for costings to gravel the paths. Litter bins were to be installed, bulbs were to be planted, trees cut back and new tree species were to be introduced. The group produced a constitution and a membership scheme. A representative of the Brownies said that their group, as well as the Girl Guides, would maintain the site!
And then, just as suddenly as it appeared, it just quietly disappeared. There’s no record of it having done anything. This example shows how fragile such groups are. It had Council support and great plans. Sadly, none of this helped. Now what factor is different this time? The FOHGC has the ‘troops on the ground’; work, both physical and mental, has been carried out over the past few years, and not just talked about. The results becoming evident to the general public, this has resulted in more people becoming involved. The FOHGC hopes to build an organisation that will maintain the site when some of us are no longer able to do the ‘heavy-lifting’.
The present group was begun in 2015. However the reason why the FOHGC started was quite simple really. John Scotney, the chair of the Hull Civic Society, was approached by his son, who often walked his dog in the cemetery. John’s son said that the cemetery was a disgrace with all of the litter and fly-tipping on the site. John went along to have a look. Here’s a sample of what he found.
As you can see in the photograph he took, it wasn’t a pretty sight. This experience prompted him to contact Sonja Boemer-Christiansen, a fellow Hull Civic Society member. She had also shown an interest in reviving the cemetery and lived locally, so visited the site on a regular basis. She also offered her home to be the site of the first informal meetings of the fledgling Friends group.
Within a short space of time the Ward councillors became involved. Eva La Pensee was recruited to be the secretary. Other people involved around this time were Alan Deighton, who wrote the introductory leaflet that served the group well at the beginning. He was also the driving force behind the leaflet that described a guided walk through the cemetery. Lisa Hewson was also heavily involved at this time taking on the role of communications and Andrew Palfreman represented the Quaker burial ground with Chris Coulson.
That autumn of 2015, responding to seeing a contact number in the Hull Civic Society newsletter, I spoke to John Scotney. I told him I had written an article on how the Hull General Cemetery began. I asked him did he want to publish it in the newsletter with the hope it could recruit more people to the cause. He said yes. So I sent it along to him and he still said yes after reading it.
We met up in the October of that year at Planet Coffee. John said he’d publish the article as soon as he could find the space in the newsletter, as it was a long piece. It was published in June 2016 This intervention on my part led me to be enlisted on the FOHGC mailing list. So my involvement with the FOHGC began in July 2016 but admittedly from a distance. Being someone who shuns ‘clubs’ or ‘groups’ on the Groucho Marx basis that any group that would have me as a member was something I should avoid, I didn’t dash to become involved.
Another reason for my tardiness was that the FOHGC‘s aims appeared confused to me at that time. It devoted considerable time and effort to restoring the Edward Booth headstone that lies in Western Cemetery. A worthwhile project, and successfully completed, but not in Hull General Cemetery.
Of more importance to my mind was that the first guided walk of the cemetery took place. This was the first since Chris Ketchell’s famous one in 2000, illustrated below. It was led by John Scotney as part of the Heritage Open Days of that year. The cemetery had begun to have its profile raised. It was returning to life.
Another important event took place the next month. Hull City Council made £1600 available to the group to pay for two display boards and the production of the guided walk leaflet mentioned above. Effectively Hull City Council, the landowners, were showing support. It could only augur well for the future.
The display boards may yet turn up, who knows? Their original settings were the infamous ‘Blue Container’ and the old laundry wall leading through to the all-weather pitch near Thoresby Street. Neither of those sites exist any more so a rethink on that issue is probably necessary.
A more pertinent issue was on the horizon. Hull’s City of Culture programme included Hull General Cemetery but for all the wrong reasons. The theatre group Circa performed a production entitled ‘Depart’ in the cemetery. This involved some aerial ballet in the trees overlooking parts of the cemetery. On the whole it was well attended, and as Martin Green, the Chief Executive of the Hull City of Culture told the BBC, in response to some criticisms from members of the public,
“That might be the impression but this is contemporary circus, which is best described as beautiful, aerial dance. No-one is going to be standing on any graves but it is a piece that responds to cemeteries and what they are for.”
Most of the audience were indeed standing on people’s graves. The heavy equipment, needed for the theatre group to complete its performance safely, caused considerable damage to the paths and yes, people’s graves. So that reply from Martin was a little disingenuous. The cemetery was not celebrated; it was simply used as a backdrop. The headstones and the people buried there were used as part of a Hammer Horror-like setting for the artists to perform. Would this have been allowed in the Western or Northern Cemeteries?
The Council approved this event. However, in defence of the Council, it wanted the cultural events during that year to be spread across the city rather than be concentrated into the city centre. I would suggest that this was the reason why the Council approved it. If the theatre troupe approached them now I believe there would be a different response.
A Facebook site was set up, as well as a website. The Facebook site attracted a lot of interest whilst the website languished. A plan to attract volunteers via a series of Activity Days was put into practice. However four days a year to remove the rubbish that constantly appeared was never going to do more than scrape the surface of the problem.
By September 2017, a bank account had been set up and the trail guide had been published. It was also the first meeting I attended. It was also the last by Alan Deighton who delivered the Guided Walk leaflet to the meeting and left. Was it something I said? No, it was nothing to do with me, thank heavens. He wanted to devote more time to the Carnegie Heritage Trust. You can, if you’re not very careful, spread yourself mightily thin. He’d recognised this and walked away.
This is a recurrent theme of the FOHGC. People come and people go. As Arthur Lee of Love sang back in 1967, ‘And for every happy hello, there will be goodbye’ and that sums it up really. People join for whatever reason, attend, give their all, and then move on. Sometimes these people re-appear. Sometimes they don’t, having found another project that takes up their time.
Although this may appear, on the face of it, quite chaotic, what it does do is keep the FOHGC fresh, bubbling with ideas and enthusiastic to tackle the tasks ahead. That is why the FOHGC have always allowed an open forum aspect to the group membership. People aren’t elected and then sit there, seat blocking for years, without contributing anything. We don’t exist for the pleasure of being important and going to meetings. Far from it. We exist to help the cemetery.
The downside to that is that meetings, as meetings can do, may last for a long while if everyone who attends wants to have their say. So, although there is no restriction to who becomes members, it is also beholden upon them to realise when their time is up, and vacate their chairs. There’s always someone else who wants to attend, armed with a good idea and a bagful of enthusiasm.
Be warned though, many good ideas have failed in that cockpit of the meeting. Floundering on the twin rocks of scant resources and common sense. And that’s without taking into account that the FOHGC is simply an interest group that the landowner, Hull City Council, favours. Some ‘good ideas’ can rapidly lose us that patronage. So, bring them into the ‘kitchen’ but don’t be disappointed if they don’t make it to the table.
Over the years many members have moved on, Here are just some of them in no particular order; Stephen Hackett, Jan Fillinger, Chris Coulson, Andrew Palfreman, John Robinson, Lisa Hewson, Sonja Boemer-Christiansen and, of course, myself twice! I’m sure there will be others in the future. The only constant is the cemetery and that’s how it should be. The cemetery is why we are there and it is, of course, the star of the show.
I’m sure all of you can appreciate that I’m reluctant to forecast much about the future. I’m writing this at the tail end of another lockdown due to the Covid 19 pandemic. ‘Nuff said. Where the FOHGC, and more importantly, the Hull General Cemetery will be in a year’s time, never mind a longer period is open to question. In what has been a remarkable last couple of years the FOHGC has been the recipient of grants from local charities, as well as all of the proceeds from a few books written about the cemetery. In essence, with little to no overheads, its finances are in good shape. And this is without a regular income stream that a membership scheme could provide.
That idea could indeed be the next step. However, to undertake that, the FOHGC would need to be established on a much more professional footing. It would need a constitution, and from that premise would stem elections, to provide its committee members. Those elections would need to be undertaken every year at an Annual General Meeting attended by the membership. If we explored becoming a charity other things would have to happen. The accounts would need to be verified by the Charity Commission and a firm of auditors. However, by becoming a charity it could enhance our income and provide other benefits.
That’s just the start but it’s a possibility. Other Cemetery Friends groups have done so and thrived. Here’s a couple of shots of Nunhead Cemetery’s Open Day 2019. Now imagine that in Hull General Cemetery. Nunhead, of course, is one of the Magnificent Seven in London. They have been holding open days, complete with stalls, since the late 1980’s so we’ve got some ground to make up. But there’s no reason why we can’t be ambitious and think ahead.
However, my opinion is that more groundwork needs to be done first before that jump takes place. Links to local schools should be strengthened so that kids are in there as part of their education and grow up respecting the site. Local businesses such as bars and cafes on Princes Avenue should have the guided walks and other information leaflets made available to them. This could encourage some of the public to saunter along to the cemetery on a summer’s afternoon after a late lunch and enjoy its attractions.
More organised guided walks should take place, not just on the subject of the dead inhabitants of the cemetery, but on the living ones too. Bats, owls, birds of all kinds, butterflies, foxes and even rats should all have their place in the sun. Metaphorically speaking of course, especially in the case of bats and owls! The display boards (remember them!) should be installed to enhance the visitor’s knowledge of the cemetery’s history and ecology. And that’s just for starters.
But the FOHGC is now established. The cemetery has had its profile raised. Guided walks attract a good crowd of interested people. The new Facebook site already has over 900 members and at least a 100 of them want to comment, add or dispute something which is a good sign. No one likes a moribund social media site. This website you are visiting now will hopefully archive and maintain the research undertaken by contributors. Such valuable material quickly gets lost on the Facebook site. The books are now all out of print but there is the distinct possibility that one or two more new ones are in the pipeline.
And that is without mentioning the considerable hard, physical work done by the volunteers of all kinds. They have, in bringing the cemetery back from the dead, made the site more welcoming than it has been for years. With all of this effort it is unlikely that the cemetery will ever become unloved again. To that end FOHGC will continue to oversee this project. When all of its current members have put their secateurs and keyboards away, they will be replaced by other, ardent lovers of Hull General Cemetery. And long may that continue.
Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.
The National Federation of Cemetery Friends (NFCF) is a national grouping. It was set up in 1986 to ‘promote the understanding and appreciation of cemeteries and actively to encourage their preservation and conservation.’ The FOHGC joined the National Federation of Cemetery Friends in 2018 as an associate member.
The NFCF sent an email in which it wondered how such groups as ours were responding to the Covid-19 crisis. They requested any information that could be shared within their national newsletter. So we decided to share with them how the Friends of Hull General Cemetery were and are dealing with the pandemic.
The core of volunteers working in Hull General Cemetery is small, and the area to be reclaimed is large, so social distancing was never a problem. We’re sure the same is true for all groups similar to ours.
An area that had been earmarked for reclamation from the neglect of the last 30 years or so was sited at the back of a line of shops. These shops front onto a popular shopping district called Princes Avenue. The land that the shops occupied had originally been part of the Cemetery. The Cemetery Company had sold it off in 1907. It had realised that, with the expansion of Hull, the rural lane of Newland Tofts Lane had now become a much more salubrious area including the Avenues. As such this land could be sold to help with the Company’s cash flow problems.
The shops have had numerous occupants over the years. Now the area is second only to the city centre for its bars, cafes and restaurants. A boon for the café culture but such enterprises often come with a surfeit of rubbish. Unfortunately, some of that ends up in the cemetery by design or accident.
The other problem issue with this area is the sycamore seedlings that have occupied any vacant space over the last 20 years or so. That coupled with rampant ivy growth and the ubiquitous blackberry bushes gives the reader a flavour of the area. The piled-up rubbish is just the icing on the cake.
The Friends knew that they could only take on this area during the period when birds were not nesting and laying their eggs. Effectively, at least in our area, this period is the middle of October to the beginning of February.
To gain an appreciation of the work to be done here’s a ‘Before’ photograph taken in 1993 and a ‘During’ one taken last week. The same building is in the background to both of these photographs. As you can see the theory of ‘managed neglect’, espoused by some, was not a success.
During the period of the first lock down, the volunteers continued with their efforts to reclaim the paths of the cemetery. This was achieved mainly through the use of the chipping machine. This machine was bought through the aid of a grant from a local charity. The copious wood cuttings are now turned into chippings. These could be spread onto the paths and allow more access to the site by the public including enhancing disabled access.
A bulb planting exercise in August and September took place. This appeared to attract more volunteers as the task was undertaken by the side of a very busy roadside.
Upon the advice of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, two areas were earmarked for the creation of wild flower meadows to attract invertebrates, especially moths and butterflies. These areas were cleared in early October. Part of the cemetery ground that contained over 10,000 workhouse burials was also cleared A granite memorial was purchased. Inscribed with a suitable inscription, it commemorates the unfortunate people buried there. These people were buried there and were denied any token of remembrance at their burials. Further planting of native trees and shrubs was also undertaken in this area.
By the time Hull had achieved (?) Tier Two level, and just prior to the second national lockdown, the work outlined above to the area behind the Princes Avenue began in earnest. It still continues and will until it has to halt for the birds beginning their nesting again.
Here are two images that show what can be done. They are a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ of the burial place of John Gravill, a listed monument with Historic England. John Gravill, died on December 26th 1866, whilst his whaler was entombed in ice in the Davis strait.
His body was brought back for burial in Hull. His funeral was attended by over 20,000 people. This figure was probably about a third of the entire population of the town at that time.
Now, I sent some of these photographs along to the National Federation of Cemetery Friends, along with some text and they replied saying that this was ideal and that it would be included in their next national newsletter. So, the work that the volunteers are doing will be seen on a much wider platform. In a sense it’s putting Hull General Cemetery on the national map, and for that all of us who care about the cemetery should be extremely grateful. Thank you Bill and all of his merry helpers.
Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.
Some of you may remember that a local periodical (The Hull Hub)published an article about the work that the FOHGC were doing last year in its September 2019 edition. They also bravely put a photograph of Bill Longbone, Russ Moor and myself in their pages. I have no idea how that affected their advertisers but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t positive! What on earth were they thinking?
Suffice to say that they haven’t learnt from that. I contacted them last week and sent them some images and text about the activities that the FOHGC were carrying out now and what they had done during the last year. I titled the piece, ‘Pandemic? What Pandemic’. I received an email back almost immediately saying, ‘great’ and that they would definitely use it for their next edition.
So, the activities of the FOHGC will once again grace their pages. And quite rightly too. The work that the volunteers have produced this year has been phenomenal and it should be widely celebrated. From path restoration to bulb planting; from creating areas that will become wild flower meadows to erecting a memorial to the people buried in the workhouse section of the Cemetery, the work has been excellent, and in the teeth of a pandemic. Well done all of you, and you know who you are.
I’m reliably informed that the Hull Hub article will be going to print next week. Not being familiar with the print schedules of the Hull Hub I’m guessing that it may be in the December or January edition. Look out for it but try to keep it away from people of a delicate or sensitive nature. The image above should be testament to that advice. You have been warned!
Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.
Its always nice when your efforts are recognised. Even better when its unexpected. Here’s the draft of an email sent on the 17/11/2020 from the Neighbourhood Co-ordinator of the area in which the cemetery sits, Mike Tindall.
“You have all really done a magnificent job, this sort of work was highly unlikely to have been undertaken anytime soon by HCC for a host of reasons but the work you volunteers have undertaken has been great, the improvement in the Cemetery has been significant and we cant thank you enough really for the help you have provided.”
To add to the delight that such an effusive comment brings, it actually did get better. Mike’s boss, Andrew Wilson, followed up Mike’s email with this,
“Totally agree with Mike’s comments, well done it is very much appreciated. I will contact our cleansing team to have the bags picked up later in
the week. Regards Andrew”
So, perhaps, it can be finally said what we, at the FOHGC, always believed. Working in cooperation with the local authority can achieve much more than constantly moaning to the council about what they haven’t done and creating bad feeling between the groups. It’s a much more positive attitude to work together, to know what the Council can do with a bit of help from community groups. It creates a trust and a belief in both sides that together we can overcome the problems in reclaiming the cemetery for the community.
As an ex-Prime Minister once said about his imposed austerity programme, “We’re all in this together”. Well, here’s some solid evidence of that idea being put into practice and how it can bear fruit.
Just remind me again, how did that austerity programme go, Mr Cameron?
Bill finds something nasty in the woodland.
Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.
Today (24 / 11 / 2020) Friends of Hull General Cemetery volunteers Bill, Jo, and Jeanne installed a Granite plaque in the pre-formed recess located at what is now the rear wall of Thoresby Street School which backs on to the cemetery. It is thought the wall was originally part of the old Alexandra Laundry. The immediate area has also been planted with butterfly-loving plants. The plaque includes a verse from Hans Christian Andersen’s short story ‘The Butterfly’. Hopefully this delightful plaque will become an attraction for the children of Thoresby Street school and surrounding areas.
The butterfly plaque was provided at cost by Odlings Memorial Masons based in New Cleveland St. We would like to offer our many thanks to the company and their staff, particularly Steve and Nikki who gave up the own time to make the plaque, also to staff member Roger Noble who gave a generous donation to ‘The Friends’.
This is the final part of this series and it tries to pull all the odds and ends that you might want to ask.
Exhumations are an issue that has been broached on here before. I was asked about when HGC sold the frontage of Princes Ave, did it disturb the people already buried there? No, no burials had been buried on this screed of land although this part had been consecrated for burials. If, however burials had taken place there the land would not have been sold.
By the turn of the 20th century, when this land sale happened, the regulations enshrined in the various Burial Acts had made it an offence to exhume a body without a licence signed by the Home Secretary. Exhumations were a serious business and licences were not given lightly.
Having said that Rev. Milson’s wife managed to get him exhumed and buried near Wm.Clowes because she wanted him buried in Prim Corner.
My experience of exhumations is brief, but that’s because they are quite rare. I was tasked with digging a grave that the body was to be exhumed from. Strangely I was quite proud of being given this role over the rest of the diggers. That might sound strange to you reading this but it showed i was good at my job.
And why was I picked? Because the entire dig was monitored by two guys from the Home Office plus a Home Office ‘digger’. So, as you all know now, i knew how deep i was going because I knew how many were already in the grave.
In this case though, the entire grave area was enclosed by a large tent. I was ‘allowed’ to dig to within a foot of the coffin to be taken out and then I was told to bugger off and get a cup of tea and go do something else.
I left the tent and the Home Office people did the rest. Sorry i can’t tell you what it was all about. No idea. We were not told. They had a licence so that was that. The coffin was placed in a plastic shell case and that was it. I don’t remember if the body ever came back.
By the way, this was in Northern Cemetery. If you are ever passing Northern, just have a glance into the work yard as you pass. You’ll notice a large brick built building taking up quite a lot of the space.
The left part of it was the mess room where we had our lunch etc. The right hand part was where we parked the dumper, kept the tools, shoring boards and all the other paraphernalia that goes with running a cemetery.
However there is a darker side to this right hand side. We called it the morgue and the reason for this was that during the Second World War victims of the bombing of the city were exhumed from the ruins and stored in this building.
Often these were identified by the families and buried in the normal fashion. Sometimes the remains were more difficult to identify.
As you’ll all know there is a grassed area close to the columbarium in Northern which is the last resting place for these people who could not be identified.
There are two rose beds on the site and a brass plaque detailing how many were buried there. All of those people were at one time stored in the building where we parked the dumper 25 years later. Doesn’t seem quite right does it? I think that’ll do. I hope you’ve enjoyed this walk down memory lane with me. If you have any questions I’ll do my best to answer them.
‘Gravedigger’ by Pete Lowden
Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.
So the grave is dug, be it a re-opener or a new one. Now comes the reason for its digging, that is the burial of the deceased.
The first job in the morning of the funeral is to check the state of the grave.
The grave door used by the stager that had covered the grave overnight is lifted and the grave inspected. Has it collapsed overnight? Is it full of water?
The first one is more serious obviously. No one wants the funeral hearse coming down the road and you’re still shovelling like mad. It doesn’t send out the right message of dignity and decorum.
If the grave has collapsed the extent of the problem needs to be assessed. If it is the soil heap side then that is potentially more dangerous for the entire soil heap could collapse. Probably a ton or so of wet soil moving is not good.
If it is the staging side, this may have problems for the mourners who will stand upon it during the service.
Anyway, if there is a problem and the grave cannot take the coffin, the funeral service takes place with the coffin on the staging board.
Once the mourners have gone, this is removed to a safe place. The excavation continues until the depth is reached and the coffin can be lowered into the grave.
Anyway, let’s say the grave is intact but the water level is high. Pumping the water out is a possibility. But the pumps never were reliable. And in wet weather the water seeped back in just as quick as it was removed.
So, the usual solution was to get the water level down to a suitable level. Then, as the hearse arrived, sawdust was placed in the grave to camouflage that the coffin was to be placed into water. Just in case any of the mourners wanted to peer down the hole.
Most didn’t but you never know.
Right now to the burial.
The hearse is coming round the corner, so you nip down into the grave and remove the bottom shoring, hoist yourself out and get ready to receive the coffin.
The soil heap and the staging board would have been draped with grass sheets, the same as fruit and veg merchants use on their stalls.
The bearers will hand the coffin to the gravediggers, who hold it, one at the foot and the other at the head of the coffin. This then is laid down on to the grave or burying ropes.
On a hand dig, only 2 staff would used, on the more recent machine digs, because they are digging with effectively a digging bucket, it is too wide to stretch across for one man so 4 staff are used.
The coffin is lowered. If it is heavy, then trust me on this, it can be quite a strain as you try to lower the coffin gently.
Especially at the head end.
Let’s say that everything goes well. The box is at the bottom. You’ve draped the ropes over the soil heap to avoid a trip hazard for the mourners.
One of you will have the job of lingering in the vicinity. Because when the phrase, ‘earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ is spoken you’re the guy who has to throw a handful of soil in on cue.
God forbid that a priest, minister or funeral director would get their hands dirty!
The people leave and now the work begins again.
The ropes are flipped out leaving the coffin in place and the soil is replaced. The longer shoring boards are removed and the grave is filled to its maximum.
Soil is usually heaped to a height of about 1 to 2 foot as it will settle in time.
You then place the floral tributes on the heaped soil. And on to the next one.
Some times, not often, the funeral director would say to you that the bearers will leave the flowers on the box.
This sometimes was the request of the family and the flowers were buried with the coffin. Sometimes it was because the funeral directors had brought the wrong coffin so the flowers were hiding the nameplate on the box.
This meant that when the mourners had left we did not fill the grave but simply placed the staging door over the grave until they came with the right body. It didn’t happen often as I said but an opportunity to take the piss is not to be missed.
I was hoping to have this as the last part of this series but there’s too much, so I’ll have one more to do. This will look at exhumations, the Winter of Discontent issues, the Northern Cemetery morgue and a few other things.
But the major part of this series is done, so feel free to go out and try it. I’d try it in the back garden first to get some experience. You don’t want to get it wrong do you?
‘Gravedigger’ by Pete Lowden
Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.
