Corpse roads – then and now
Back in the middle ages, established churches hung on to their right to bury the dead when new churches were built nearby to serve a growing population. Burial rights brought in revenue. This meant that parishioners of churches without a right to bury their dead were compelled to take them to a church which did […]
A C of E funeral
To Salisbury and the funeral of the mother of two friends. The venue is the cathedral, no less. We get there in good time, but not good enough: the place is almost full and we forage for a seat at the back. Who’s the celeb who died, you ask. No one you’ve heard of. Andrea […]
Should women be allowed to go to funerals?
I don’t suppose there can be many ‘indigenous’ funerals held these days which prohibit the presence of women. There may be one or two redoubts in Presbyterian Scotland. Bucking the trend in the wider community, though, many Muslims prohibit their presence. Why ban women from funerals? To spare their feelings, mostly. Or put it another […]
Fifty years since JFK’s assassination
Posted by Richard Rawlinson We’re approaching the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas, at 12.30pm on Friday, 22 November 1963. In the wake of a media deluge, here’s a video of the state funeral on Monday, 25 November. Preparations were speedy. The president’s body was brought back to Washington and, after 24 hours […]
Death in the community
East Midlands funeral director, A. W. Lymn The Family Funeral Service, has become the first funeral directors in England to advertise on a billboard. The poster is the first of a series of 9 which will appear over the course of the next year The billboard is situated at the bottom of Greenhill Rise in […]
Be smart – follow the money
In all so-called advanced cultures, funeral practices are becoming less elaborate. All this talk of baby boomers reinventing funerals as bespoke, themed, accessorised, more or less lavish performance events can seem to make good sense — but baby boomers, who by now have buried and cremated many thousands of parents, ain’t, experience now tells us, […]
Up and coming
In Glasgow, Barbara Chalmers of Final Fling is organising a Day of the Dead festival which Barbara describes as ‘A small but perfectly formed celebration of life and death with art, chat and a bit of pop-up drumming.’ Dates are Sat 26 Oct and Sat 2 Nov. Sounds good to us; we are big fans of […]
An essay in melancholy
Last week I passed an empty hearse going the other way. It set me musing. Freed from its solemn duties, no longer slowed by a weighty coffin and all the gravitas attendant upon such a thing, emptied of flowers and no longer the misty-eyed focus of profoundly sad people, it had about it none of […]
Cash for crash
Suffolk police have come under fire for their practice of awarding cash payments to officers who have to deal with exceptionally difficult or distressing incidents — a particularly horrible road crash, for example or, in the words of the Police and Crime Commissioner, “picking up charred remains of bodies from house fires and picking up […]
The beauty of the vigil
Posted by Richard Rawlinson When Charles Darwin died in 1882, he was brought to Westminster Abbey the evening before his huge funeral. His coffin was borne through the cloisters, his five sons following, into a small, bare vaulted side chapel (St Faith), which had until recently been used as a storeroom. Architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, […]
