Many thanks to Maria Blanca Gomez for sending in this wonderful picture of the Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries in their autumnal glory.
If anyone has any photos of the cemeteries they would like to share please email them to patrick.napier@rock-sound.net or upload them to our Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/brockleyladywellcemetery
Map
Monday
Autumn Colours
Brockley Vaults Open Day - 30 October
Brockley Cemetery is holding an Open Day on Tuesday 30 October, from 12.00 – 1.00pm.
It aims to give people an opportunity to look around Brockley Vaults and to see how they operate. Members of the public are very welcome to come along, look round and ask questions.
At 12.15pm cemetery staff will demonstrate how the Vaults are opened to allow the internment of a new coffin.
The Vaults were installed two years ago by Welters, a specialist Vault makers based in Carlisle. There are 140 chambers in the area. Each chamber can accommodate 2 coffins, or caskets.
Saturday
Remembrance Day clear up
Our next project is a litter-picking one on 11.11.07 starting 10.30am
meeting at the Ladywell chapel via cemetery entrance in Ivy Road,
Lewisham SE4. As this will be on Remembrance Day we certainly intend
to pause by the war memorial on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh
day of the eleventh month" after which bin-liners will continue to
receive more than eleven bits of discarded rubbish no-doubt.
Volunteers welcome to participate with their own supplied gloves and
bin-liner. (Risk assessment as required to be applied for.)
Please call Bob Clark (020 7639 2929) or e-mail (robertclarkmail@msn.com) him if you want more information
Monday
Next meeting of FOBLC is on Tuesday 16th
This is a reminder that the next meeting of the Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemetries is to be held on Tuesday 16th October at 7.30 in the Envirowork Lewisham Depot, 113 Brockley Grove, opposite Huxbear Street.
Thursday
Take a trip back to 1907
One of our eagle eyed Friends has spotted this glorious technicolour postcard of Brockley cemetery in 1907 for sale on Ebay.
A snip at £26 and rising! See the full listing at http://tinyurl.
Monday
Healthy Brockley walk
Here are some pictures from Sunday's walk. Bob Clark gave a very informative guided talk to a group of Healthy Brockley walkers about the natural world that exists within the Cemeteries. While many invertebrates have by now 'gone to ground', hibernated or shuffled off their mortal seasonal coils they were able to locate the ready to over-winter 'nursery pod' of the Wasp Spider Argiope bruennichi.
The Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery also mounted an exhibition in the Chapel of Bob's. Many thanks to all involved in this inaugural event!
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History and Notable Burials
Probably the most interesting (albeit gruesome) piece of history in Brockley Cemetery is a monument erected to the memory of Jane Clouson.
The monument was paid for by public money and stands alone amongst the trees - a praying child sits on top of a pillar.
Below the figure is an inscription detailing the horrific events surrounding her brutal murder on April 25th, 1871:
"A motherless girl who was murdered in Kidbrooke Lane Eltham age 17 in 1871. Her last words were, "Oh, let me die". "
The Scottish Times
News and intelligence from Scotland, and around the globe. Vol. II–No. 38.] Edinburgh, October 11, 1871. Price 3d.
[from Northstar Creative.co.uk]
GREENWICH MURDERER ACQUITTED. YESTERDAY, the Pook family of Greenwich, London, were forced to leave their family home, so strong was the feeling of the local community against them – the animosity having arisen from Mr E. Pooks recent acquittal at his trial, for the murder of Miss J. Clouson.
For anyone who has not been following the case, the public anger and resentment is quite understandable when one considers the undisputed evidence, in that: Jane Clouson was 17 year old when she gained employment at the Pook’s residence, that 3 years later Mr E. Pooks overcame her virtue, and that earlier this year the unfortunate girl found herself pregnant.
It was also revealed from testimonies that Miss J. Clouson had been led to believe Mr E. Pooks was going to make a respectable woman of her and, on the evening of her demise, she was going to meet him.
What follows next is a clear and exact series of events, which only a judge – with the mighty burden of the Law weighing down on his shoulders – could find circumstantial.
Sometime later on that fateful evening, a Constable discovered Jane Clouson in a wretched condition, crawling on Kidbrooke Lane with her head battered so severely, that one eye was hanging from its socket. She never fully regained consciousness, and died later in Guy’s Hospital.
Despite the facts that the accused was seen running from the lane, and that the murder weapon found at the scene – a hammer – had been sold to him by a local shopkeeper some days earlier, and that his trousers were covered in blood and mud : there still remained a “reasonable doubt”.
Mr Pooks claimed that he had spent the entire evening, awaiting with amorous intent, outside another ladies’ house in Greenwich – and this claim, much against everyone’s wishes, could not be disproved.
Notable burials:
Sir William Eames (1821-1897) Marine engineer
Sir John Gilbert (1817 - 1897) Illustrator, drawing for the 'Illustrated London News' and designed a cover for 'Punch'
Sir George Grove (1820 - 1900) First director of the Royal College of Music in 1882 - author of 'Dictionary of Music and Musicians)
Sir William Hardy (1807 - 1887) Deputy Keeper of Public Records 1878 - 1886
Sir Alexander Nisbet (1812 - 1892) Inspector General of the Royal Navy and honorary physician to the Queen
William Stephens (1817 - 1871) Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of England
[information from London Cemeteries - Hugh Mellor]
Taken from London Necropolis
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