Churchyard of St Mary De Castro Church, Leicester

St Mary De Castro Church, Leicester

Visited September 2019

This Medieval church is the second oldest in Leicester and, as it's name suggests, is inside  what remains of Leicester Castle (the name St Mary De Castro translates to St Mary of the Castle). I'm told the church is well worth a visit, but it's only open 12 to 2 most days.

The churchyard is full of mostly 19th century graves, although it's been in use for many centuries before that; it's the oldest continually used open space in the centre of the city! One wall of the churchyard is medieval, the others a bit more modern.

As seen in other graveyards in Leicester and the wider county, the gravestones are primarily made from Swithland slate, as was common in the 17th to 19th centuries. Want to know more about this type of gravestone? There's a paper on them from the Leicester Archaeological Society in 1941 on the Leicester University website, here, which even references on p.217 the hundreds of slate gravestones in the churchyard of St Mary de Castro.

Highgate Cemetery - West Side (2019)

Highgate Cemetery, London - West side

Visited August 2019

It's been over 6 years since I last visited the west side of Highgate Cemetery - this is the side which is only visitable on a guided tour (£12 for a tour lasting anything from 1 to 2 hours, guide and weather depending). The most notable change was the sad removal of the ancient Cedar of Lebanon from the Circle of Lebanon; it was cut down in early August following the discovery of catastrophic rot, making it dangerously unstable. While its absence is clearly felt, the guide did tell us that plans are afoot to source a new one.

The tour took us to some old favourite graves, and some I hadn't seen before - there's no set route for the groups, so always something new to see. And a visit inside the catacombs, while not to everyone's taste, is something I always enjoy! Since my last visit, a new mausoleum, the huge, and hugely expensive, Goldhammer tomb, has been built just inside the entrance (or the exit, as it's the last burial you see before finishing the tour) - I like that despite being of the 21st century, it's very sympathetic to the styles of the 19th and 20th century burials that came before it.