You might think that old bones could rest in peace without being troubled by the progress of the modern world. Well you need to think again. Here's Holy Trinity's burial ground on Castle Street, in use from 1784 to 1861 to take what might be called the overflow from HT's churchyard. It's a bit of a rundown neglected place often the haunt of drunks, drug addicts and the flotsam and jetsam of humanity. Many of the brick vaults are falling down, tombstones now lie strewn on the ground and ivy flourishes as it should in these places. In short it's how you'd expect a cemetery to be that hasn't been used for over a hundred and fifty years. Now the place is doomed to be cut in half by the proposed Castle Street improvements which will rip through what you see here. Up to 11,000 burials might be affected and they will all have to be exhumed and reburied elsewhere. It's reckoned it take over a year just to do this. Oh and say goodbye to the trees (and the roosting bats that live here) as well.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear it. We need mossy, vine-covered graveyards with overturned headstones. Seriously, we do.
ReplyDeleteYes, so am I. I lived in Hull for many years and I always enjoyed walking in this quiet place. It has a wonderful atmosphere. I can still remember one particular grave: Francis Laycock. He was a musician and died in 1792. What, I wonder, was his story? And the felling of those marvellous old trees. My heart sinks whenever I hear about so-called progress destroying the past.
DeleteThis makes me so sad. My family is buried here. Sarah Ann Sheppard my gr. gr. grandmother died of Asiatic Cholera in 1849 and I believe my gr. gr. grandfather and his father are also buried here. It breaks my heart to think of their burial places being disturbed like this. Do you know where the reburials are? It seems like such an intrusion, destruction really.
ReplyDeleteHow is this acceptable? Total vandalism, all my ancestors gravestones have been ripped up.
ReplyDelete