Mystery Grave of Thomas Cribb

Thomas Cribb was a bare-knuckle boxer in the 1800's. There is nothing particularly interesting about his life or death but what is interesting is the monument upon his grave. Upon his death in 1848 Cribb was buried in the churchyard of St, Mary's and St. Andrews church in Woolwich. A local 'legend' of that area is that his grave was originally just a stone block, but one night the majestic lion monument that stands to this day was erected, but no one knows who put it there. The grave stands alone under the cover of trees behind the old Odeon Cinema, a line of indistinguishable and undatable grave markers lean against the wall behind it.

Whilst looking into the facts of this story I have discovers that the monument was paid for by a subscription but there is no mention of how or when it arrived.

There is not a lot of information about Cribb's grave, but here is the limited amount that I did manage to track down.

http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/11may.htm

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4614

The Highgate Vampire

I came across the legend of the Highgate Vampire recently. According to the stories the 'vampire' was first discovered to be haunting the cemetery in the 1970's after a series of sightings of tall ghostly specters in and around it and one woman claiming she was attacked by a tall man with a deathly white face. The reports were so overwhelming that two men, Sean Manchester and David Farrent, lead a mass vampire hunt. They claimed to have destroyed the vampire but there are still being claims up to this day of strange goings on in and around the cemetery, many believing that there could still be a vampire in there somewhere. During the hight of the vampire hunt a the charred and headless remains of a woman were found not far from the catacombs that they Manchester and Farrent believed the vampire to be residing in.

There are lots of articles on the internet concerning the mystery of the Highgate Vampire, as well as other ghostly goings on around the cemetery. Some of the most interesting can be found at the links below.

http://www.ghost-story.co.uk/stories/highgatevampire.html

http://www.davidfarrant.org/about/thvs.html

http://www.strangedayz.co.uk/2007/09/highgate-vampire.html

http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Vampire%20Research%20Society.htm
There are many videos on YouTube that feature Sean Manchester and David Farrent talking about the Highgate Vampire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqJjlKjFdVg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Aw_7JUts9g

There is also a horror film called Highgate Vampire that is based around the legend. Trailers are available but there is no release date as yet. More information can be found at the below links.

http://www.highgatevampire.com/

http://www.facebook.com/#!/highgatevampire?ref=ts

Jack The Ripper

Jack the Ripper is one of London, and the worlds, most famous serial killers, mostly due to the grusome ways he mutilated his victims as well as the fact that he was never caught and still to this day no one is certain of who he was. In the future I hope to take part in a Jack the Ripper tour in which you travel around the sites that he commited his murders so that I can photography these sites as they appear today.


The article below was found in a free magazine with The Sunday Mirror that was all about the worlds most infamous serial killers, unfortunately I cannot find an online version so that it is easier to read.

The following links contain more information on London's infamous serial killer.

http://www.casebook.org/

http://www.met.police.uk/history/ripper.htm

For information about the Jack the Ripper walks and tours the following link should be helpful:

http://www.jack-the-ripper-walk.co.uk/

Highgate Cemetery East: Marthe Josephine Besson

When in the East side of Highgate Cemetery I spotted this beautiful memorial of Marthe Josephine Besson. To reach the memorial it took quite a walk through some overgrown and very muddy paths to reach her, but it was definately worth it.Much like an angel in Charlton Cemetery she had a mark over one of her eyes produced by weather over time.

I have been unable to find out any significant features about her or her life other than she ran factories that produced brass musical instruments.

Highgate Cemetery: Thomas Sayers

In 'The Sun' on Wednesday there was an article about one of the fights of Thomas Sayers, the boxer mentioned in a previos post. The article is available at the link at the below.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2940920/Recounting-the-first-ever-boxing-World-Heavyweight-fight.html

Cemetery Symbols: The Urn

One of the many statues that can be placed on a grave site that has a symbollic meaning is that of the Urn. If the Urn is shown half covered by a cloth, it shows that the deceaseds family believes in reincarnation, the space left by the absense of cloth allows for the soul to leave the Urn to be reincarnated. If, however, the Urn is completely covered by a cloth then reincarnation is not believed in. The cloth does not need to leave a space as the soul cannot move on after the body has died. The two photographs below to show these beliefs were both taken in Highgate Cemetery.

Highgate Cemetery: East

When i visited Highgate Cemetery I explored the East side as well as the West side. The East side is still a working cemetery and so there are a lot of newer graves than there are in the West side, there are also a few unique and interesting memorials worth seeing.


The East side is best known for being home to the tomb of Karl Marx, which is impossible to miss seems to be constantly surrounded by a swarm of tourists. It has been so well documented, though, that it didn't seem that special to me.


One of the first graves as you enter the East side of the cemetery belongs to Anna Mahler, a sculpture. The memorial on her grave is a copy of one of her own sculptures which gives it a great sense of uniqueness. Another grave close to the entrance is of Douglas Adams, writer of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. The memorial in itself is very plain but what maked it interesting is the small toys that have been left by fans on top of the stone.


Despite still being a working cemetery with many modern graves the cemetery was unused for such a long time that there are still many graves that are enshrouded with ivy and other plant life, there are also many narrow winding paths crisscrossing the cemetery but these are so overgrown that you are unable to walk down them.

Highgate Cemetery West: Mary Nichols: The Sleeping Angel

The tomb of Mary Nichols lay hidden in ivy for many years until it was discovered by photographer John Gay in the 1980's, it now is clear for all to see. The tomb shows an angel asleep upon a bed of clowds.





Not much is know other Mary Nichols other than she died in 1909 of diabetes and heart failure and was the wife of a bank and insurance manager. She is however one of the most beautiful statues in any cemetery I have ever seen.

Highgate Cemetery West: Thomas Sayers

Thomas Sayers was the first man to be declared the World Heavy Weight Champion in the sport of Boxing. Throughout his career he was only ever defeated once. When he retired he settled in a house in Camden where he was often seen driving his carriage up and down the streets with his Bull Mastiff 'Lion'. He died at the age of 39 of Tuberculosis and Diebeties. At the time of his death he was so famous that his funeral was attended by ten thousand people. His friends pulled together to pay for his tomb, which bears a statue of his beloved dog. More about Sayers can be found here:

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=5959&more=1

Highgate Cemetery West: Nero the Lion

The majestic lion Nero was the pet of George Wombell, the proprietor of the worlds largest menagerie in the early nineteenth century, and now he lies guarding his grave.
Wombell started out displaying two Boa Constrictors for a penny a view in London's taverns, and slowly moved on to more and more exoctic animals that many people would never have otherwise seen.

He became a favourite in the Royal Court and appeared three times before Queen Victoria. He died in 1850.

More information on Wombell can be found at the following:4

http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/16november.htm

http://terenceruffle.co.uk/20100213/-my-great-great-grandfather-george-wombell-part-1

Highgate Cemetery West

Being probably the most famous cemetery in I had to visit Highgate. The cemetery is split in to two halves, East and West. In the East side you can wander alone but in the West you are only permitted to enter if taking part in a tour, which lasts approximately an hour but you could easily spend a full day wandering this half alone. The pace of the tour does not really allow much time for quality photographs but what I managed to capture the best will be shown in the next few post. Below I have included a few interesting things that I spotted that would not fill an entire post to themselves.



What is described as the most talked about grave in Highgate is pictured below, it is the oldest grave in highgate cemetery, the deceased was 36 when she died, one year older than the average death age. Also spotted was this example of a death mask. A death mask is an actual mold of the deceased face that is then turned into a mask and put upon a memorial statue. This creates a copy of the deceased faces on their memorial. This tecnique was also used at Highgate in the tomb of Julias Beer, which is the cemetery's highest point. In this tomb a child, with the face of his deceased daughter, is being carried off to heaven by an angel. It is prohibited to photograph inside of the tomb but I'd recomend visiting the cemetery to see it.

Wossys Wife

In 'The Sun' last friday I noticed this article about Jonathan Ross's wife Jane who has purchased the skeleton of a baby with two heads from a shop in Hackney called 'The Little Shop of Horrors'.

The article can be read here: http://www.the/sun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/2907976/Jonathan-Rosss-wife-jane-Goldman-pays-1500-for-sekelton-of-2-headed-baby.html

Next time I'm around that area I may have to pop in and take a look to see what I can find.

Charlton Cemetery: Thomas Murphy

Possibly the most famous memorial around Greenwich is that of Thomas Murphy in Charlton Cemetery. Murphy, who died in 1932, was the owner of Charlton Greyhound Track and to commemorate and memorialise this his trusty greyhounds guard his memorial.




I was unable to track down any more information on Murphy or his memorial but there are a few photographs of the memorial here: http://www.londonnecropolis.com/charltoncemetery.htm

Charlton Cemetery

I visited Charlton Cemetry recently in the hopes of tracking down my great nan and grandads graves, however I was unable to find them. Charlton Cemetery is a working cemetery, as was affirmed when I got quite a scare by a grave digger appearing from a hole! Many of the graves here are so old that the grave stones have been weathered away and the engravings have completely dissapeared.



As with all the other cemeteries that I have visited the most popular statue appears to be that of an angel, however it was very noticable here as there were rows populated solely by angels lined up next to each other.Although nothing unusual about this statue itself I was struck by the way the eye area has been marked over time. This, along with the fact that she is almost completely hidden undermeath tree, to me it gives the woman a strange and un-angel like appearance. She has definatlely become one of the most unique things I have witnessed in a cemetery so far.

Plumstead Cemetery

The entrance to Plumstead Cemetery is difficult to find as you have to travel up a side road and then into a small turning on the right, once inside you have to travel through the old church building.

Upon entering the cemetery I first noticed this angel carrying a child off to heaven. This cemetery has a particularly large section for children, however I did not feel comfortable photographing that section.



Another thing that I noticed about this cemetery was the mausoleum as it was the first one I have seen in the places I have visited so far.



I was also struck by this small statue as it differs in colour from most of the other statues in cemeteries, which are usually white.

The Crying Child of Woolwich Cemetery

When i visisted Woolwich Cemetery I noticed this statue of what appears to be a child crying in the new half of the cemetery. Obviously it is not crying but the rain running down its face that gives the appearance that it is.

Woolwich Cemetery - The New Half

The new half of Woolwich Cemetery differs from the old half, it is still being used for burials so is a lot more modern.


Up until recently there was an old cottage at the entrance that was reminisscent of the wicked witches house in a fairy tale.


There are no distinguishing features to this half, except quite a high number of war graves.

When I visited I did, however, notice this cross with a woman hanging onto it. It struck me as unusual as I had never seen anything like it in any other cemetery I have visited.