Gravestones, Tombs & Memorials Read Online Free Page A

produced memorials from simple decorative markers with prongs to full size headstones, as in this example (they would originally have been painted).

    FIG 2.17: Greek Revival headstones with a simple triangular head and bat wing features in the corners of the example below, and a profile replicating that of Ancient Roman and Greek stelae in the one above.

    FIG 2.18: Late 18th- and early 19th-century gravestones are often found with delicate carving and fine details in the Adams-style, popular a few decades earlier. In general, memorial styles are often 20 or 30 years out of date reflecting the conservative attitude of local masons away from cities like London and Bath. This example shows some of the new symbols popular in this period like the weeping tree, Hope and her anchor, and the urn.
    Victorian Gravestones
    The establishing of cemeteries and the rise of an affluent urban middle class in the mid 19th century coincided with great changes in the design of memorials. A reinvigorated clergy inspired by medieval Gothic architecture looked disdainfully upon what they regarded as pagan forms on Georgian gravestones and sought more appropriate styles and images, most notably with the return of the cross as a symbol (it had not been widely used since the Reformation for fear of ‘Popery’). New pattern books with designs by local architects became the reference point for memorials, with Gothic arched slabs, altar tombs, coped stones and the Celtic cross prominent. However, the often uneducated middle classes preferred something more dramatic and between the ranks of elegant lancet-shaped gravestones appeared weeping angels, rustic crosses, anchors, towering obelisks and columns.

    FIG 2.19: A selection of Victorian gravestones showing the wide variety of shapes available, although the lancet appears to be the most popular. There was often a small circular or triangular feature in the top section, containing a single weeping figure, a cross or foliage.
    These elaborate gravemarkers became more affordable as the funeral business introduced new production techniques with prefabrication of stones and machine-cut lettering, often filled with lead inserts. Although the clergy frequently stipulated the use of local stone, cheaper imported marble from Italy, where it was sculptured near to the quarries before export, became a prominent feature in cemeteries and some churchyards. Mass production and village reorganisation as enclosure acts condensed the land into the hands of a smaller number of richer farmers, with the local gentry preferring to use their own architects to design memorials, combined to cripple the small-scale local mason and many went out of business in this period.
    The Cross
    Pre-Victorian gravestones which feature the cross are rare until attitudes against Popery relaxed in the early 19th century. The Victorians made the cross popular again and the whole gravestone was shaped as thus. Plain, decorated or Celtic types are a common feature of cemeteries.

    FIG 2.20: A distinctive feature of Victorian memorials is the use of contrasting stones in a single gravestone or tomb. In this example, marble and polished granite have been inserted into the carved stone framework.

    FIG 2.21: A Gothic-style gravestone (with a pointed arch similar to that used in 13th-century lancet windows) with labels of some features which were common on Victorian memorials.

    FIG 2.22: Some headstones were more elaborate although not quite on the scale of the tombs and monuments of the period. The examples above are (from left to right) a broken column, obelisk, angel, and rustic cross, the latter on a pile of rocks.
    Ledgers, Body Stones and Coped Stones
    A ledger (a flat stone laid horizontally over the grave) was a natural progression from those used during the medieval period in the floor of the church itself. They may have been preferred by those who believed they trapped the souls of the dead to prevent them coming back to haunt