Open Day at the cemetery

People in places like Paris will understand that cemeteries can be tourist attractions. In London, there are a few famous ones - Highgate in particular, which contains the graves of many famous people, including Karl Marx.

As the churchyards filled up, Victorian London expanded to take its dead further and further out. There was even a Necropolis Railway to take the dead to their final resting place.

Nunhead Cemetery in south London is not so far out and not so famous, but it is a protected site, and there is a Friends of Nunhead Cemetery group which has an open day every year.

This is the chapel, which is roofless now.

Most of the site is a nature reserve, the graves overtaken with brambles, nettles and young trees and bushes. Several years ago - perhaps 9 or 10 now - when I started on my family tree, and rediscovered my cousin Percy, he told me our grandfather was buried in Nunhead Cemetery, and gave me some documents he had acquired that showed where granddad's grave was. It was a communal grave, and as such had no headstone, just a marker tablet. I found out where it was and located it, moved with others against a nearby tree. Later I took Percy to see it. We planned to move it to our grandmother's grave in a north London churchyard.

It never happened. But today I decided to go to the open day and have another look, and maybe find someone to help me lug the heavy lump of stone to my car.

Alas, I couldn't get anywhere near the cemetery in my car. The road was too narrow to allow to cars to pass for most of its length, and the number of visitors' cars parked nearby was huge. I parked in a nearby street and limped my arthritic way to the gate.

Sadly, the relevant part of the cemetery is now even more overgrown, and in a skirt and sleeveless top I couldn't have got near it even if I could have recognised it without serious injury.

Oh well, all is not lost - tomorrow is another day.