God's Acre

Interviews about the graveyard

"Health of towns":
an examination of the report
and evidence of the Select Committee:
ofcMr. Mackinnon's Bill:
.... for establishing
cemeteries around the metropolis.
(p:22 1843)

Mr. Moses Solomons, who resided in Vinegar-yard, Drury Lane, said, his " back staircase windows looked into the churchyard."

This son of Abraham, who seemed to be a somewhat malicious witness with respect to the gentlemen of the spade and pickaxe, gave evidence, on the main point, of the most decisive and remarkable character.

He has resided during fifty-seven years on the margin of one of the most crowded and worst managed grounds in the metropolis, and the result of this extraordinary experiment is as follows :

" Does any exhalation or putrid smell arise from it ? -Sometimes, in summer time. "

Is that very great. - "Yes, very great. "

Have you ever found it affect your health ? - "No".

Nor the health of your family ? - "No."

This testimony of Moses quite confounded the Chairman, who, returned to the point by a general interrogatory, and obtained from the aged Jew an answer which only made matters worse :-

" Is that a healthy neighbourhood ? - Where I live (on the margin of one of the worst graveyards) is very healthy."

Rev. Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868)

"Health of towns":
an examination of the report
and evidence of the Select Committee:
of Mr. Mackinnon's Bill:
.... for establishing
cemeteries around the metropolis.
(p:24 1843)

The Rev. Henry Hart Milman [Link], now Rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and formerly Rector of St. Mary's, Reading, a witness only second to the Bishop of London, - for he, too, lived in a churchyard seventeen years, - was thus interrogated :

" Generally speaking, do you conceive that there is any evil arising from it, [burial in churchyards,] so far as it comes within your knowledge ? - I should say, none whatever."

Saint Michael - Stockton, Norfolk

Saint Michael - Stockton, Norfolk [Link]

Railings

Saint Michael - Stockton, Norfolk [Link]

Rev. James Endell Tyler (1789–1851)

"Health of towns":
an examination of the report
and evidence of the Select Committee:
ofcMr. Mackinnon's Bill:
.... for establishing
cemeteries around the metropolis.
(p:22 1843)

The Rev, James Endell Tyler, Rector of St. Giles's - in-the-Fields, a witness of the first class, says :

" Having been there sixteen years, I never have heard of a complaint from the neighbours. We have three schools, the windows of which open into the churchyard; and we all think it a great advantage to have that free circulation of air. We have never, in any one instance, found any effluvia from the churchyard. On the contrary, it is a decidedly healthy spot."