A walk round Wardsend Cemetery

Forkbeard

Forkbeard

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Jim
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Wardsend Cemetery is a disused graveyard in Hillsborough Sheffield with quite a rich history. It is the final resting place of people from the Great Sheffield flood in 1864, Soldiers from both World Wars that were stationed at the nearby Hillsborough Barracks and the site of a grisly mass grave, where bodies used and dissected by Sheffield Medical School, were illegally buried without ceremony or coffins by the Sexton Isaac Howard. Howard took payment for the burials and improperly disposed of the bodies to save money and line his own pockets. The discovery of the pit sparked allegations of grave-robbing and riots broke out in which a mob of locals descended on Howard's house and burned it down, nearly killing his wife (Isaac wasn't home). The mob then started digging up graves of their loved ones to make sure they were in there and hadn't been tampered with. Wardsend is also the only cemetery in England with a railway line running through it! I've only explored one side of the railway so far.

A gravestone carelessly smashed in half to erect a new railway fence:

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Its a weird place to visit (about a 10 minute walk from my house). Not been in since I was at school, remember going in with my dad after the new fence was erected and seeing the half stone.
We also found a tomb where part had been dug away and collapsed, gave me the creeps!

Might have a nip in one afternoon, hopefully not get attacked by rampant school kids skipping lessons :)
 
keef32 said:
Its a weird place to visit (about a 10 minute walk from my house). Not been in since I was at school, remember going in with my dad after the new fence was erected and seeing the half stone.
We also found a tomb where part had been dug away and collapsed, gave me the creeps!

Might have a nip in one afternoon, hopefully not get attacked by rampant school kids skipping lessons :)
Click to expand...

It is a pretty odd little place. I know the broken tomb you mean and I've seen a picture of it somewhere recently (although I can't remember where/what site). I don't know if it's actually still there though - the picture was from around the time of the floods in '07.
 
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An interesting collection and your narrative adds quite a lot too, it helps to gain the "bigger picture".

Chris
 
An interesting site for sure.
You may consider some monochrome images, and maybe some infra red images.
Infra red always seems to suit a graveyard for some reason.
 
Norkie said:
An interesting site for sure.
You may consider some monochrome images, and maybe some infra red images.
Infra red always seems to suit a graveyard for some reason.
Click to expand...

I've been up there a couple of times, the other time with my OM2n and a roll of Ilford HP5+ which is waiting to be developed :)
 
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