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Video: Lonely Ladies Cemetery: The Non-Puritan Mysteries of a London Landmark Long Closed to Tourists
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Medieval London was primly decent, God-fearing and polite. Therefore, any mention of women of easy virtue shocked the average man in the street. They were called "lonely ladies", and after her death no lady of easy virtue could count on being buried in an ordinary city cemetery. For even after leaving the other world, she had no right to be in the society of respectable citizens.
History of appearance
A place for the burial of lonely ladies was allocated back in the late Middle Ages. The first mention of it dates back to 1603, when the historian of the Tudor era, John Stow, while reviewing London, described the Crossbones cemetery.
The historian separately mentioned that prostitutes did not have the right to participate in any religious rituals, unless they repented of their sins. The continuation of prostitution until they left for another world led to the fact that they were called "Winchester geese" and after death they were deprived of the right to a proper burial according to Christian customs. It was for the Winchester geese that a plot was provided, located far from the parish church, so as not to offend the feelings of decent people.
It should be noted that in those days, women of easy virtue extremely rarely lived to old age. They could die at any moment, both at the hands of a customer dissatisfied with the service, and at the hands of a maniac like Jack the Ripper. More than 15 thousand single ladies found their last refuge at the Crossbones Cemetery, and from 1769 beggars began to be buried here.
Only in 1853, the cemetery was closed for burials and acquired the status of an attraction, quite popular among the tourist environment.
Secrets of the cemetery
Naturally, historians could not ignore such a remarkable place. In the 1990s, excavations were carried out at the Crossbones cemetery.
It turned out that many burials are real mass graves, where the bodies are simply piled up on top of each other. The saddest find discovered during the excavation was the burial of unborn children and babies under one year old. The number of such burials is 40% of all those buried in the cemetery, that is, about 6,000 children. Another 11% of the graves belonged to children under one year old.
Studies have also shown that a large number of those buried in the cemetery died as a result of various diseases, including smallpox, tuberculosis, Paget's disease, arthrosis and vitamin D deficiency. Adult graves belonged mainly to women over 36 years old.
Cross Bones today
Surprisingly, not so long ago, the cemetery again became a popular place. Now it belongs to the Transport for London company and at one time was completely closed to the public. But local residents and tourists brought their gifts to the cemetery fence, tied ribbons on it, hung toys and other objects, which made the territory look very unusual.
The cemetery gained popularity after in 1996 the poet John Constable was inspired by the history of the cemetery and devoted a whole cycle of his works "Southwark Mysteries" to the burial. The author created a whole society of "Friends of the Crossbones Cemetery", designed to protect the place of rest from the encroachments of construction firms and open it to the public.
Since 1998, Halloween has been celebrated here every year, during which a church service takes place, and all participants receive ribbons with the names, date of death and profession of people buried in the cemetery. Activists are looking for information about them in the London Archives.
The cemetery has its own website, and Cross Bones' support groups are on social media, and, among other things, they post notifications about events. Locals and many tourists consider this place unique, they enjoy spending time here, taking pictures and just relaxing. Some artists choose to use the cemetery as an original art space, displaying their drawings and creating installations.
It just so happened in history that after the death of a person, a funeral rite was expected. How exactly to bury a person - in a stone tomb, a wooden coffin or burned at the stake - was determined by social, religious and cultural norms. Therefore, sometimes they are so strange that they simply drive scientists to a dead end.
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