Gravesend Cemetery, Gravesend, Kent

Gravesend sits on the banks of the Thames in Kent, and currently has a population of around 56,000 people. The cemetery is run by Gravesham Borough Council. I was there a few weeks ago to watch the Dulwich Hamlet youth team play Gravesend & Northfleet, at Fleet Leisure, which is their training complex. The entrance is on Nelson Road, and you walk past the back entrance to Gravesend Cemetery to get there. I popped in and took a few snaps, as I enjoy wandering around the tranquility of cemeteries, I hoped the pictures wouldn't be too repetitive. It then hit me that I could quite easily set up a seperate blogging site just for burial grounds I stumble across. I hope you enjoy what you see, they will be rather eclectic, I won't be picking them out, I will just be visiting them 'as and when...'

This is the main gates to Gravesend Cemetery, entrance on Old Road.

This stone comememorates the opening of the
extension to the cemetery in the early 1930s.
Unfortunately I didn't make a proper note of it.

A few general views follow, to give you a feel of
the place.

A few plots...

This appealed. A simple wooden cross, the body
not long in the ground. Tucked behind, in the
trees, is a rubbish bin. As John Lennon sang:
"Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try.
No hell below us, above us only sky".
None of that religious nonsense, when you're dead
you're dead. That's it. A pile of rubbish in a box
six foot under the ground...

A lovely image of greyhounds coming out of
the traps here. Was he a bookmaker? A serious
punter? An owner? Or just a fan of the sport?

I took this one because it was rather
unusual. The grave of Lilian Wakefield, who died
on 26th December 1933, not long after the
extension to the cemetery opened.
Was she a lover our feathered friends perhaps?
Was it her own idea, or just a comforting
gesture from her family?

I only had a quick dash around this cemetery.
I am sure there are many I've missed,
and as I try to notice more will find they
are probably quite common. But even if
they are I will still snap them to show you
as I come across them if they appeal to me.

Wandering around...

This is the 'middle part' of the cemetery I suppose,
the old part being that by the chapel through the main gates,
& the 'new' part being the section I entered from
Nelson Road.
This stone commemorates the first extension.

And this is the area it was situated near.

The older part of the cemetery

It was the sporting theme that caught my eye.
Thomas Miles Adams was born on 25th May 1810,
and died on 20th January 1894, aged 83.
He played first class cricket between 1836 and 1858,
playing 157 county games.

A nice row of headstones.

Date not known, this wasn't really a planned
site, just an idea, so I never took notes.

More general views:





I liked this one, with a nautical theme. Though
it didn't say if he was in the Royal Navy; Merchant
Navy; or just enjoyed sailing. Harry William, aged 73,
died 26th September 1939.

The Commonwealth War Graves:

I have a fascination with these immaculately kept plots.
So you will have to 'suffer' me as I take a snap of them
practically everywhere I go.

I chose these two individual ones close up,
this one must have a story or two to tell!

Also unusual, in so much as it is not
related to the First or Second World Wars.
A brief search on google couldn't shed
any light on this for me, but I'm sure
the facts behind it are there somewhere...

Brown Bread: Cockney rhyming slang for DEAD

So the heading of this explains the name of my photoblog.

The question is WHY?

Truth is I cannot truly answer.

What I am trying to bring you here is a collection of snaps from cemeteries & assorted burial grounds from wherever I happen to be, and that take my fancy.

I feel they will be just a bit to repetitive to post onto my photoblog, which I hope you will look at, if you haven't come across it before.

Hence me trying to start up this sort of sub-section anoraky type one here!

But why cemeteries? Good question, which I can't really answer. But I do feel drawn to the places, I find it very hard not to walk through the gates of one, or a churchyard, if I'm walking past, no matter where I am. I don't expect some of my regulars to look in, but if you like that sort of thing, it may be worth popping back.

I may expand more at a later date, but I'm not very technically minded, & have to rely on other people to help me with this site, as I do not have a computer myself.

So now go back to the main site for the photographs....

This is a sort of index...

From the most recent postings, month by month:

June 2006:

4th: Monmartre Cemetery, Paris, France (99 photos)

May 2006:

24th: Brompton Cemetery, West Brompton,SW5 (73 photos)

12th: The Pantheon, Paris, France. (24 Photos)

5th: Tomb of Napoleon, Paris, France. (19 photos)

April 2006:

21st: St. Leonard's Churchyard, Streatham, London, SW16 (16 photos)

9th: West Norwood Cemetery, London, SE27. (9 photos)

March 2006:

29th: The Catacombs, Paris, France. (26 photos)

21st: Nunhead Cemetery, London, Se15 (63 photos)

15th: St. John at Hampstead Churchyard, London, NW3. (72 photos)

16th: St. Mary's Churchyard, Nantwich, Cheshire. (26 photos)

February 2006:

27th: City Cemetery, Belfast, Northern Ireland. (44 photos)

23rd: St. John the Evangelist Churchyard, Burgess Hill, West Sussex. (30 photos)

10th: Milltown Cemetery, Belfast, Northern Ireland. (50 photos)

2nd: Burial Grounds, Terezin, Czech Republic. (26 photos)

January 2006:

29th: Falls Road Republican Garden of Remembrance, Belfast, Northern Ireland. (12 photos).

27th: Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, London, EC1. (28 photos)

11th: St. Paul's Church & Burial Ground, Covent Garden, London, WC2. (17 photos)

6th: Camberwell New Cemetery, London, SE23 (51 photos)

3rd: Honor Oak Crematorium, London, SE23 ( 25 photos)

1st: St. Mary the Virgin Churchyard, Rotherhithe, London, SE16 (15 photos)

December 2005:

23rd: Sprava Olsany Cemetery, Prague, Czech Republic (73 photos)

16th: Walthamstow Cemetery, London, E17 (27 photos)

15th: St. Mary the Virgin Churchyard, Battle, East Sussex (19 photos)

14th: Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague, Czech Republic (28 photos)

November 2005:

9th: Greenwich Cemetery, London, SE9 (22 photos)

2nd: St. Margaret Churchyard, Ditchling, East Sussex (12 photos)

2nd: St. Cosmas & st. Damian Churchyard, Keymer, West Sussex (13 photos)

2nd: St. John the Baptist Churchyard, Clayton, West Sussex (11 photos)

1st: St. Nicholas Churchyard, Brighton, West Sussex (10 photos)

October 2005:

29th: St. John the Baptist Churchyard, Eltham, London, SE9 (21 photos)

15th: St. George Churchyard, Beckenham, Kent (7 photos)

September 2005:

The first entry...

29th: Gravesend Cemetery, Gravesend, Kent (20 photos).

Thank you for looking in..now please enjoy the pictures...by going into the monthly archive on the main site to find the cemetery you would like to look at...