RegardsFromEdin

By RegardsFromEdin

The Craigentinny Marbles

This is the mausoleum of William Henry Miller.   He was the Member of Parliament for Newcastle Under Lyme and died in 1848.   What is most bizarre about this, to me, is that it's in the middle of a street of bungalows on Craigentinny Crescent and right next to the bowling club (where I was playing)!  But when he died there were no houses etc., and the 30 feet high mausoleum was built in open fields in the middle of his landed estate.  When he died his will had quite specific instructions that he was to be buried in a pit deep underground with a £20,000 budget for a commemoration monument to be built on top.  There are two elaborate friezes on the monument designed by Alfred Gately, one of the most celebrated sculptors of the age.  The Craigentinny Marbles is the local name for the mausoleum.   There are all sorts of wild rumours as to why he requested this burial!

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