Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Things you notice in a cemetery

The local town cemetery adjoins the old churchyard in Poulton-le-Sands. Closed to new burials for some years, there is only now a slight possibility of remaining space being claimed. In there somewhere are buried various relatives of Thora Hurd and Eric Morecambe as well as the great and the good of long ago.

The cemetery is more like a local park now, thanks to good work by the council and volunteers. It attracts dog-walkers and the occasional person pursuing family history. The one burial I did there caught people by surprise and I still remember people hurrying out of the way as our little procession went down the main path. They were genuinely surprised to see a burial in a graveyard!

Just every now and then I spot something interesting in there. A headstone with some music manuscript etched on it, an entertainer from Japan buried in a corner of Lancashire. This stone caught my eye one day.


The first bit of the inscription is written in the first person, by Edith about her husband, Oswald. Nearly 52 years later, she was buried on the same spot - the inscription changes to 3rd person. There's a story there.

2 comments:

Bluebellwoods said...

I've tried to follow the story up - Oswald was a surgeon dentist, born in Halifax in 1873, his father was also a surgeon dentist.
Edith too was born in Halifax. The couple had no children. in 1911 Edith was living with her mother and sister in Cavendish Rd, Morecambe. I can't find any evidence that she ever re-married.

Mike Peatman said...

Thanks for the update.