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Monuments to Death
by Usksider @ Wednesday, 25. Jul, 2007 - 19:01:21

Well okay as you know I have this thing about cemeteries; they can be extremely relaxing and highly educational places. Not that I’m suggesting for a moment you should all rush out and visit your local bone-yard because if you do they’ll stop being so quiet and peaceful and then I’d have to find somewhere else to go...

I’ve found you can learn a lot from looking at the gravestones, but also there’s a certain beauty to be enjoyed in the stones themselves. Take a look at these and tell me what you think; who might lay beneath these stones?

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faffajanefaffajane pro
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25/07/07 @ 19:12

I love that first one:)

No idea who they belong to, except the second must be a seafaring one.

I love looking around graveyards, we do that when we go on holiday and visit churches etc:)

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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25/07/07 @ 19:30

Not surprising perhaps with Newport's history to find headstones of a nautical nature.

The first one belongs to someone of the Jewish faith; it's a nice piece of work. :)

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faffajanefaffajane pro
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25/07/07 @ 19:32

It is yes:)

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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25/07/07 @ 19:36

Did you check out the larger version? Easier to see the detail. :)

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faffajanefaffajane pro
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25/07/07 @ 19:37

Yes I did because I wanted to see the detail - it is very beautiful:)

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 04:36

Uh huh. :)

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craftycardscraftycards [Member]
25/07/07 @ 19:26

Like faffa, I love the first one, it looks as if it could be the resting place of nobility.

Number two and four I would guess at belongiong to someone with strong links to the sea. No three kinda looks like milatary?

Answers please if you know them. :yes:

Thanks for posting them I find churchs and church yards interesting too.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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25/07/07 @ 19:32

The third one has been vandalised; that makes me very cross. It would have held a shield at oe time and marks the final resting place of an officer from the Monmouthshire Rifle Volunteers.

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deleted user [Visitor]

25/07/07 @ 19:29

lovely pics...yes....graveyards and cemetaries are fascinating places....love them...so peaceful....:yes:

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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25/07/07 @ 19:34

Yes they're wonderful places to just 'lose' yourself; I get some very odd looks at times walking around taking pictures though...

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deleted user [Visitor]

25/07/07 @ 20:01

:)) :)) I can imagine!! :))

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 04:48

Remind me to tell you about the time I was accosted by an old dear with an umbrella: very Benny Hill! :))

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deleted user [Visitor]

26/07/07 @ 20:02

yes...sounds fascinating..did you start running around madly??? :)) :))

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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27/07/07 @ 05:53

I really should have shouldn't I? :))

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EthelRedEthelRed [Member]
25/07/07 @ 19:52

Interesting photos. I like the brown effect you've added to the last one.

I have lots of photos taken in war cemeteries in France and Belgium. I think some of my friends and family find them a bit morbid, but when I am there I feel I always want to remember the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have been killed or gone missing, so end up with loads of photos. The cemeteries are beautifully maintained and tranquil. I also wonder about the stories of the dead men's lives.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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25/07/07 @ 20:30

War graves hold a special interest for me too, but I always seem to end up in floods of tears whenever I visit them...

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EthelRedEthelRed [Member]
26/07/07 @ 19:56

The inscriptions chosen by family for some of the war graves are very sad and poignant.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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27/07/07 @ 06:05

Yes they are. I can't imagine how it must feel being in the position to have to write one.

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MunzlyMunzly pro
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25/07/07 @ 20:13

Was there a Jewish name on the first one? It looks more like a Masonic stone to me.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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25/07/07 @ 20:27

Good thinking Munzly; the name was unreadable, but it may be worth checking the cemetery records. I'm pretty sure the first name was Walter...

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MunzlyMunzly pro
http://poppycock.blog.co.uk/
25/07/07 @ 21:26

The compass and square are a dead give away. I'm not a mason, but having started out in the architectural profession, it was quite hard to avoid being recruited :)

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 04:34

I bow to your superior knowledge and will attempt to find the gentleman's name.

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menhirmenhir [Member]
25/07/07 @ 22:22

I do have some thoughts about the monuments but I think it best I keep them to myself.

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suzeemoonsuzeemoon [Member]
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25/07/07 @ 23:58

I'm intrigued...

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 04:42

Yes me too: spill the beans Men :yes:

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menhirmenhir [Member]
26/07/07 @ 09:09

All I will say is that it is much easier strolling the grave yards of Northern Scotland, (they're not all attached to churches) and viewing, in the main the simplicity of the memorials. It gets a bit complicated again when you go into one particular Viking cathedral and see the place abounding with a formuleic old skull and cross-bones symbolism.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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27/07/07 @ 06:16

Ah the Vikings; I'd like to come up and visit some of your local grave yards, but unfortunately that's not very practical.

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menhirmenhir [Member]
27/07/07 @ 10:11

I won't ask you about your practicalities. ;)

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menhirmenhir [Member]
27/07/07 @ 10:11

I won't ask you about your practicalities. ;)

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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27/07/07 @ 10:16

Probably just a well! :))

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suzeemoonsuzeemoon [Member]
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25/07/07 @ 23:59

As you know I too love cemeteries - and with spell checker I can even spell them properly! :))

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 04:50

Oh I manage typos all the time - given up worrying about it, as long as people get some idea what I'm talking about! :))

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deleted user [Visitor]

26/07/07 @ 00:10

Nice pics Usksider. Grrr shame about the officers grave, what sort of bastard defaces a tombstone! Out of interest were these taken in Newport, St Woolos again?
On a morbid side note, I think its a shame that people dont go for grandious momuments anymore! Its a trend that should come back!

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 04:55

Beats me why anyone defaces anything really, but somehow vandalising a grave seems a pretty horrible thing to do.

A mixture of images from St Woolos and Christchurch here Chris.

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MunzlyMunzly pro
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26/07/07 @ 05:26

If as you say it was a shield with some heraldic symbols that was removed, this is because there's a vast and profitable market in the USA for "genuine" genealogical items. No doubt this is now on some American's wall pretending to be part of his family history.

There is a whole confidence trick industry that sells "Ancestral research services" and then puts together a bundle of such stuff and pretends their actually genuine relics of the mark's English forebears.

I belong to several genealogy groups and we are constantly coming across innocents who have paid large dollars to be fooled in such a way. One person even paid for a book to be published about his ancestral castle at Brancaster, Norfolk. The book includes a romantic etching of Harlech castle (Wales) - Brancaster only has a level field once used by the Romans as a camp. I have a scan of parts of this book and it is a complete fabrication end to end, connecting the chap's ancestors into various Royal lines etc. etc.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 12:01

I can't be certain, but suspect the missing part to have been the regimental crest, which would have been shield-shaped. It may not be residing on some American's wall, but you can bet it is on a wall somewhere.

How sad that some folk allow themselves to be sucked in like the example you've given. For goodness sake, what makes these people believe they're all related to royalty/reincarnated Egyptian nobility etc?

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MunzlyMunzly pro
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26/07/07 @ 12:50

It all part of the "American Dream" :)

Some of my ancestors are Dawsons, which is vaguely Scots, generally, but also has Welsh and other lines. I was contacted by an American Dawson who was incredibly proud of his Scottish ancestry, had a house full of Dawson stuff and wore a kilt whenever he could - then tragedy struck, he discovered his ancestors were Polish and had changed their names to Dawson to better fit in with the US culture.

They all seem desperate for roots of some sort :)

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 12:56

Dawsons, eh? Does that mean we can blame you for 'Titanic'?!?? :))

I can't help but wonder now what the Polish family name was before they changed it to Dawson...

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MunzlyMunzly pro
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26/07/07 @ 13:40

Not my branch, mine were all drovers, weavers and butchers.

I don't remember the Polish name, it was just one of those exchanges of data on an emailing list. I don't think it was in any way like Dawson. Keep your eye on the Munzly blog, I'll post a couple of Dawson tombstones you might find interesting.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 13:51

In that case I'll forgive you. ;)

Yeah, I'll look forward to seeing your pix. :)

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[Visitor]
http://bloggitygoodness.blog.ca
26/07/07 @ 00:45

whispers

I'm scared of cemetaries

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 04:56

Fear not Mama, we'll protect you. :)

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deleted user [Visitor]

26/07/07 @ 10:46

Fascinating. Are these all private individual stones or do some of them represent multiple graves?

You don't seem to get such ornate and interesting monuments these days.

Our local council knocked a whole load of them down and then wrote to people like my mother(my father's stone was one of them) and said that the stones had been dangerous and she would have to have my father's re-erected at her own expense.

I discovered that we could claim a small grant to help with the expense, but it was rather annoying. I thought our stone was quite firmly rooted unlike some I found in the same cemetery.

Apparently somewhere in the country a child had been crushed by a falling stone and the parents had sued. The council weren't taking any chances on being caught out again and so they just flattened dozens of the things.

I wouldn't mind betting the little sod was running around pushing stones over with his mates. Don't parents accept any responsibility for their sprogs these days?

GB

PS - The first stone is a Masonic grave.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 12:10

Hi GB,

Yes these are all individual stones, which is one of the things that makes them so interesting to me.

I'm sure you're right about the first one. Having done a bit of digging following Munzly's comment yesterday I've found images of other Masonic graves with very similar decoration.

I remember that incident with the kid and the gravestone. The same sort of knee-jerk reaction happened around here, but fortunately the public outcry changed minds very quickly. Such a shame you had to go through that experience.

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deleted user [Visitor]

26/07/07 @ 15:54

I don't know if you're interestd, but Having studied these things a bit I'd say the occupant of the first grave was member of the order of 'Knights Templar' judging by the templar cross at the bottom and the swords at either side.

The Square and Compasses are well known signs of the craft and the Hexagram may mean he was a member of the 'August order Of Light', but I can't be sure about that.

GB

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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26/07/07 @ 18:09

Indeed I am interested GB, thanks very much for this. :yes:

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XVllVXXVllVX [Member]
08/03/08 @ 11:55

Sir Michael Black-Feather (1958) from the house of BlackFeather also See coats of arms blackfeather
Dismissed out of MI services for being through to be a member of the Tepmlar, as the being Commander of the Knights Tepmlar England a secret organisation

But this was never proven and he was never convicted by the British Government because they couldn’t find any evidence against him, He is convinced Jodi and Diana where Murder by services to defend

Google Sir Michael Black-Feather Knights Templar

The Knights Templar
The Knights Templar were accused of infidelity, Muhammadanism, atheism, heresy, invoking Satan, worshipping demons ... Brig Gen Sir Michael Black-Feather,Kt ...
www.unexplainedstuff.com/Secret-Societies/The-Knights-Templar.html - 32k -

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UsksiderUsksider pro
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09/03/08 @ 09:53

Thanks for this... I'll take a look. :)

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