Traditions of Death and Burial by Helen Frisby

Author:Helen Frisby
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784423803
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

Coffin complete with light, oxygen pipe and alarm. Illustration from W. Tebb, Premature Burial: How it May Be Prevented (London: 1905).

Interior and exterior of Woking Crematorium, 1909. By building crematoria in this ecclesiastical style, it was hoped to establish cremation as a respectable alternative to burial.

As in previous times, the funeral tea continued to be an important aspect of the proceedings – and to be criticised by reformers, who failed to grasp its importance as a means of social bonding following a rupture in the community. Thus food and drink continued to account for much of the typical expenditure upon funerals; for instance George Rhea, whose funeral tea in August 1846 included 10 gallons of ale, beef and ham, bread and £1 (£60) worth of cheese, as well as gingerbread, black and green tea, and 4lb of lump sugar. Although by this time funeral hospitality no longer carried a specific appeal for prayers for the deceased soul, there was still a strong desire to do right by the dead. This is apparent in the remark of an unnamed Yorkshirewoman, upon taking her leave after a funeral tea, that: ‘You’ve done ivverthing by him you could; there’s neea two ways aboot that!’

For those of much lesser means, a pauper burial on the parish carried increasing social stigma: ‘only a pauper who nobody knows’, as the saying went. Interment in an unmarked common grave, the norm for most previous generations of ordinary people, now became deeply shameful. One creative solution to this was the inscription or ‘guinea’ grave which, while shared with strangers, afforded at least an entry on a headstone. This desire to mark the existence of a named individual, and for some physical focus for a continuing relationship, found its fullest expression at the other end of the social scale, with large, elaborate memorials inscribing an individual’s status, achievements, personality and relationships quite literally in stone upon the landscape.

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