A churchyard with history

These daffodils are earlier than others around here and I went with my camera to take a few photos this afternoon.

I was leaning over the wall of the abandoned cemetery when two locals came up to me and asked if I wanted to know anything about it. What a wonderful opportunity. I knew a little but this was living history.

One chap had lived in the cottage opposite for his whole life and he told me about the lodge next door which had been the isolation hospital during the wars. The cemetery was attached to St Matthews Hospital, a mental institution which had been closed down in the 50s. There had been an old chapel on this site and this was the graveyard.

I did blip some gravestones some time ago, noting that there was either an M or an F plus three numbers. Apparently when there was a death they would put the body into the earth and just cover it up a bit until they had three of the same sex, at which point they would dig deep and put a stone over it with the numbers relating to the patients !

The daffodils are apparently an unusual variety, of which there are only three other locations. The council don't pay proper attention to this and just mowed them - along with lots of other things which had given sanctuary to a wonderful variety of birds, including owls and a nightingale.....

A wonderful treasurechest of local history.