As promised, the Fryerstown Cemetery. This is the one that I was told was amongst the most haunted in Oz. If that's so they were staying out of the sun.
The temperature DID drop about ten degrees as I came through the gate [ cue eerie music ]
but that had more to do with the fact that I was passing from bright sunlight into the shade of tall gums than with the presence of anything supernatural.It's certainly beautiful and dates from the 1850s or 60s and judging from the obviously recent interrments, is still in use.
The more affluent denizens are, not surprisingly for the time, all in the Anglican section. 
The more affluent denizens are, not surprisingly for the time, all in the Anglican section. 
Many of the graves in the Methodist and Presbyterian sections are unmarked. Again, not surprising, given how many impoverished welsh and cornish miners ended their days here.
I thought this one in the anglican section was particularly sad. The family lost one son at 19 in 1902, then the mother and father passed away never knowing that their two other sons were both killed in France during the Great War... one of them only a month before the war ended. It doesn't seem fair somehow to come through all that carnage only to lose one's life when the end was in sight. Strange too, the wording of the first son's memorial : son of Henry and M. Sanger. Why didn't Maria get her full name on there? Did the stonemason run out of room or did Henry think only his name mattered?There didn't seem to be quite as many graves of young children as I have seen at the Castlemaine Cemetery. This touching one for
"our darling Roy" described him as "another little bud in heaven"
"our darling Roy" described him as "another little bud in heaven"
11 comments:
I'm finding it hard to think of something to say other than it looks very peaceful...naturally...what else would it be?
Thanks for the photographic journey through the cemetery. The headstones give so much social information and you chose really well.
I've always found cemeteries (or as Daddy Sheep always called them, "Marble Orchards") rather peaceful. I love the ones with the older stones...so much history!
I too love reading the old headstones and imagining the stories behind them.
Great pictures too.
i love old cemeteries. always an important stop while visiting a new (old) place!
Just a guess, but I wonder if the "Henry and M. Sanger" business didn't have more to do with centering and spacing the lertters on the stone than anything else.
Having done some lettering in the past (pen and ink, not chisel and stone!) I know spacing issues can make for some very creative arrangements at times.
I love the elaborate statuary in so many older graveyards--very evocative. And so often these are in areas that were otherwise rather plain, no public art etc. I don't like the "modern" commercial cemeteries with acres of grass and flat markers, and no trees--no soul there!
Oh, I'm so glad you went back and gave us the tour - I was curious about it after your first post. Very neat! I love cemeteries - so much neat history.
Great shots; cemetaries are fascinating places. Poor Maria, having to raise kids and all and not even getting her full name on her son's memorial!
I thought of you and your goat friends today. My son and I went to a zoo which had a petting area with small goats. He likes goats a great deal. He discovered that if you touch their tails, they will twitch enticingly. After that, he had to make the rounds of all the goats, touching their tails. I warned him that that was the "business end", so to speak, and that the goats might not care to be touched there. Evidently that concern was no match for his desire to gather data. Happily, there was a hand-washing station outside the goat area.
Wow, what a surprise to be surfing the net and come across the cemetery where a good majority of your Cornish ancestors rest. I am heading that way around Christmas 2007 for photo's for my Family History Album. Thanks heaps, Dawn
Amazing - Henry's sister, Elizabeth, was my GGrandmother. I had a reference in the family tree to this headstone and now I've seen it.
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