In the Catholic cemetery
Not many people know Sheffield and its environs better than me. I have wandered pretty much everywhere - walking, exploring and taking pictures. However, I had never before explored the cemeteries on Walkley Bank.
Walkley Bank is a plunging, wooded hillside that descends to the valley of The River Rivelin. Many times I had driven past the gates to St Michael's Catholic Cemetery but had never ventured inside. And that was my goal today but when I checked the city map, I noticed that there are in fact three connected cemeteries on that hillside.
Off Waller Road at the top there's the big general cemetery that was principally for Church of England and Methodist burials. Next to it is a small Jewish cemetery. From there it's a long way down to the Catholic cemetery.
Having just carefully repotted two large cacti, I drove over to Walkley Bank on a hot summer's afternoon. T-shirt and shorts weather and of course I took my camera to give you blogmates a sense of the three cemeteries that each suffer different degrees of neglect - but I kind of like that wildness, that sense of Nature returning.
I was enthralled with what I saw. So many stories. So much tangible evidence of lives passing. Once here, laughing and working and loving and raising families - now gone and pretty much forgotten. That is very likely what will happen to you and to me. A hundred years from now we will just be smudged names on our family trees.
I was particularly intrigued by the Jewish cemetery. Most of the gravestones bore Hebrew carving and death dates were frequently provided according to the Hebrew calendar. Apparently there is a Jewish tradition in which years are measured from the imagined day on which Earth was created so that what we would normally think of as the year 1928 becomes 5688. By the way, we are currently in the year 5786. Yes folks - it's only 5786 years since our world was created so forget about the other stuff you may have heard about - you know - geology, dinosaurs, evolution - that kind of thing.
At the bottom of Rachel Rosenhead's tombstone are these letters - "C.P.H.D.S.I.P.". What on earth could that mean? I had never seen these initials on a grave before so I had to do a little research when I got home. It means "Come Perish Here, Departed Souls In Peace" and it is apparently quite a common addition to Jewish gravestones.
I could have easily spent a day exploring those three cemeteries but it was hot and I needed to get home to make our evening meal and to prepare to watch England play Ghana in Boston.
It was a frustrating, nervy game and no goals were scored. Next in line is Panama on Saturday.
Military graves in Walkley Bank Cemetery. Both of these "private" soldiers died in 1921.
Weeks of rain and days of blistering heat.
ReplyDeleteI love the graveyard in the summer.
The tombstones camouflaged in colour.
Bug-life, swaggering weed, wildflower.
An English Graveyard by Julian Stannard.
The Poetry Society online.
Randall Jarrell said England got an extended spring but not a real summer.
He was from Tennessee and lived in North Carolina before his terrible death.
Co-incidentally, I stumbled across the grave of "John Haggerty". It said "A Glaswegian by birth" and "He died in a pub brawl". What a shame!
DeleteCemeteries have always been places of peace and quiet for me, of watching birds and squirrels, pondering life and death and looking at beautifully carved stones and even more beautiful flowers and trees.
ReplyDeleteA disused overgrown cemetery is an important retreat for small and smallest wildlife, and can give human visitors a lot to think about.
Rachel Rosenhead died at only 44, but I hope she had a happy life. At least she did not have to endure the Holocaust.
I am sure you would have loved strolling around those three connected cemeteries with me. Afterwards we could have had ice cream cones.
DeleteThe cemeteries look wonderful with all the green growth among the headstones. I wonder now what the world will be like in the real 5786? Will there still be people?
ReplyDeleteThat is a question that kind of blows my mind Elsie!
DeleteI had no idea there are military graves in Sheffield.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of British cemeteries and churchyards contain the graves of military men and even some women.
DeleteGraveyards are extraordinary places, beautiful with the old tombstones, nature allowed to run loose but I still remember what Bill the gravedigger told me and it wasn't nice ;)
ReplyDeletePlease don't tell me what Bill said. I can imagine.
DeleteA friend tells me that English graveyards are always allowed to return to the wild. Is that correct? I think it's a lovely idea: ashes to ashes, dust to dust and the land returns to it's original state
ReplyDeleteNo! That is most definitely not correct Kylie. Most graveyards are neat and well tended.
DeleteI love wandering around graveyards. Did any of the Jewish stones have little stones or pebbles placed on top? We saw a lot of Jewish graves in the ww cemetries in northern France. We saw little stones on top. The guide said it was a Jewish tradition.
ReplyDeleteWe have a wall of black and white photographs of past family members. The furthest back is Mary Butler who came to Blackburn from Lancaster in the late 19th century.
Not all of us will be forgotten.
A lovely post.
I didn't see any stones Christina but the placement of stones was a beautiful moment at the very end of "Schindler's List".
DeleteSlowly being reclaimed by the earth.
ReplyDeleteAnd the squirrels and the foxes and the birds.
DeleteI love cemeteries and visited many old ones in my travels. There's such a sense of peace there and the headstones are amazing to read!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what Carlos will have carved on your headstone Bob?
DeleteNot only the people are forgotten but the burial sites are forgotten and unkempt. One wonders why the churches do not take the time and effort to maintain the cemeteries. My sister died in 1953. There are very few people living who knew her.
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1953. The same year that your sister died. Perhaps she passed some of her spirit to me Keith.
DeleteMy Dad used to take us for drives in the country when we were young and he always had to stop at any little cemeteries that we came across. We had a game of find the oldest gravestone that was always interesting. The cemeteries in my city are very well kept but I won't be buried in a cemetery.
ReplyDeleteWhere will you be buried Ellen? By the shores of Lake Michigan?
DeleteMy ashes will be thrown in the river that flows through my city - at the confluence where the 2 branches of the river come together. But don't tell the authorities!?!
DeleteI find cemeteries tell us a lot. Morbid as it sounds, I have often visited cemeteries whilst abroad as they ae so different from ours and tell us a lot about the culture.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I am also drawn to cemeteries ADDY.
DeleteEnglish cemeteries look so 'disorderly' compared to ours in Sweden... Here, they just aren't allowed to grow that wild. In 2011 a child died after an old gravestone fell on her, and a similar accident happened again in 2018. This led to strict safety regulations across the whole country. All standing tombstones are now tested regularly, and if deemed unstable it's laid flat on the ground until the grave owner arranges to have it secured. Every grave must have an owner responsible for it, and either looks after it themselves, or else pays to have cemetery staff do that. If not, the grave is "returned" to the church (most cemeteries are looked after by the Church of Sweden) and after a certain number of years can be reused by someone else.
ReplyDeleteOh dear Monica... it would be very wrong to conclude that all English cemeteries are like this one. Perhaps the majority are neat and well-maintained.
DeletePerhaps. My impressions do come mostly from bloggers fascinated with taking photos of OLD churches (and surrounding cemeteries...) (In my blog list you'll find one Billy Blue Eyes with a blog called The Church Explorer, for example.) ;)
DeleteI lived in walkley 1989 to 1996 and Hillsborough 1996- 2005 and never really know if its existence
ReplyDeleteYou would have enjoyed haunting those three cemeteries - perhaps dressed in a white sheet.
DeleteOne of my favorite blogs you have written. Took me back home for a while as have always loved to visit old churchyards - thank you
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you enjoyed this blogpost Rosemary.
DeleteI have spend many hours in cemeteries too, I am fascinated by the many lives once lived. Part of my practice is to honour the ancestors and there is no greater honour that to say there names and think of them.
ReplyDelete