Brompton Cemetery, London

Out of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London, Brompton was the last for me to visit. It is located by West Brompton station and close to Earls Court, the old Exhibition Centre is across the road from the cemetery, and the Stamford Bridge stadium (home of Chelsea football) to the south. 

The north entrance gate says West of London and Westminster Cemetery, erected 1839. The cemetery was opened in 1840.

Brompton is the most symmetrical of the seven cemeteries, with neat rows of graves and paths and a Central Avenue. The place is very popular with joggers. 

Because of its "neatness" I found it a bit less exciting than the other cemetries. Also there were very few names that I recognised who were buried there. However several graves featured a pile of rocks, which I hadn't seen elsewhere. These are known as the rock of faith. General view -

Dr Benjamin Golding was a medical pioneer who founded Charing Cross Hospital. To the left of his tomb is one with a pile of rocks.

A broken column often symbolises someone who passed away in the prime of life, often the head of a family. Henry Pettitt died from typhoid aged 45. He was a popular and prolific Victorian dramatist, famous for his melodramas.

One name I did know, Emmeline Pankhurst, a passionate and fearless campaigner for the rights of women. She died 1928.

I liked the winged cherubs with a bowl on Central Avenue, the grave of Albert Emile Schloss -

Looking down Central Avenue towards the Great Circle.

More graves with rock piles -

There aren't many big tombs in Brompton. This one is quite elaborate, James McDonald, a Scottish-American oil magnate whose mausoleum is watched over by angels. He died in 1915 in Washington and his remains were only returned after the War, he was interred in Brompton in 1920 - 

Leaving Central Avenue -

Yew tree

John (Gentleman) Jackson was a boxer. A prize fighter, he became a bodyguard at King George IV's coronation. He died aged 76 and was honoured with a monument with a carved lion on his tomb costing upwards of £400 which was provided by his many friends and admirers

The Great Circle and Colonnades - Two long colonnades embrace the Great Circle, possibly inspired by St Peters in Rome. There are catacombs beneath.

The chapel -

The catacombs were underground vaults built to hold thousands of coffins. They have impressive cast iron doors -

Reginald Warneford VC - Charismatic ‘Reckless Rex’ is one of the cemetery’s 12 Victoria Cross holders. He died aged just 23. Ironically, after his war efforts, he was doing a test flight when his plane suffered a wing failure and crashed and he died from his injuries.

Cedar of Lebanon -

The holm oak aka holly oak is one of the few evergreen oaks in England and is known as a sacred tree -

The Strawberry Tree is an evergreen from the Mediterranean. The fruit were just starting to turn red -

 The Chelsea Pensioners Monument, erected 1901 -

The infantry section - An elegant marble cross stands guard over a field of eighteen white headstones, marking the burial place of many hundreds of peacetime casualties from the Brigade of Guards between 1854 and 1899

There was a modern section, this lady obviously loved Christmas -

Throughout the cemetery there were many pigeons and squirrels. People were feeding the latter and they were very tame. Sadly I didn't take any peanuts with me

This board gives interesting information about features found on graves -

See the Brompton Cemetery webpage.

Autumn equinox 2020

Tuesday, 22 September 2020 was the autumn equinox. This is the first day of autumn in UK. 

September has generally been warm, with many days in the mid 20's C in London. It was 24℃ on the equinox. But that was set to change as the forecast for the next few days was down to about 13 C.

It's been a very dry summer. There was hardly any rain in the SE of England.

This year there has been an abundance of apples on the trees around me, and the conkers on the horse chestnut trees have been plentiful and large in size. Also the grape vines have produced lots of fruit this year.

Twin conkers !

I love conkers. As a child I used to play "conkers" with my parents, so that meant collecting as many as I could. And I still can't resist picking them up when I see fat, shiny brown ones lying on the floor. I soon dry out though. I no longer play conkers, instead I use them to throw at cats that disturb the birds and squirrels. 

Conkers is a traditional children's game in Great Britain, played using the seeds of horse chestnut trees. The game has two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string: they take turns striking each other's conker until one breaks. It was quite a painful game as often a conker would hit your hand. And unless you held the string tightly there was the chance it would be pulled from your hand. See Wikipedia on the game of conkers, and another page on Historic UK.

Not many leaves are falling yet except for this tree, I'm not sure if it is a rowan

My blog on Autumn equinox 2017.

Fox cubs playing on patio chairs

I get a lot of pleasure watching the antics of this year's fox cubs. They took a liking to exploring and playing hide and seek on a neighbour's patio chairs. And one cub would just sit in a chair -

Video of a game of hide and seek -

Scadbury Manor archaeological site, Kent

Scadbury Manor was a medieval moated manor house, located near Orpington in Kent. It is now an archaeological site. I'd never heard of it until I read they were having an open weekend in September 2020 so I went to have a look.

The site is being dug by the Orpington and District Archaeological Society (ODAS). Scadbury Manor estate was first settled around 1200. The remains of the early manor-house complex, surrounded by a moat can be still be seen. The estate has been held by a limited number of families over the years.

From the bus it was a short walk through Scadbury Park, a local nature reserve, and then across some open countryside and through some woods.

Visitors were able to follow a trail around the site and go onto the island to see the foundations of the Tudor Manor House (including the Great Hall and Kitchen). Social distancing rules against Covid-19 were quite strict, with visitors being kept well apart, and there was a queue to get in. Photos taken whilst queuing -

Main hall in centre and apple store to the right

Once inside, visitors followed a marked route. Looking at the main hall with the apple store behind. Note the corbels for the bridge across the moat in the foreground -

This is the remains of the undercroft, a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. This dates to the Walsingham house, 1424. It was probably used for storing beer brewed locally and wine imported from France. The structure was repaired in the 1920s but much of the original remains -

Staircase from the mail hall -

Main hall with fireplace on left

Next to the great hall is the kitchen, though I didn't take any photos.

Tudor brickwork of the farm buildings - the bricks are original, from around 1500. They were made locally and held together with lime. Flemish brickmakers brought the techniques to England in the 15th century. Bricks were more fire resistant than wood. 

Going back through the woods

Scadbury Manor on Google Earth -

See more on Scadbury Park and a Wikipedia entry. Also the ODAS page on Scadbury.