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Churchyard Memorials, ‘Dispensing with God Gradually’: Rustication, Decline of the Gothic and the Emergence of Art Deco in the British Isles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2018

K. D. M. SNELL  and
RACHAEL JONES
K. D. M. SNELL
Affiliation:
Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, [email protected]
RACHAEL JONES
Affiliation:
Honorary Research Fellow, School of History, Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, [email protected]
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Abstract:

This article considers rusticated memorials in many churchyards and cemeteries in England and Wales, between c. 1850 and the present day, analysing their forms, chronology, and their wider social and artistic significances. These memorials have hitherto been a neglected form among British memorial styles. The discussion here focuses on the English Midlands, Kensal Green Cemetery (London), and Montgomeryshire in Wales. It appraises how such memorial rustication may relate to changing attitudes to rurality, ‘natural’ landscapes, and secularisation over time. As an analysis of shifting memorial tastes, the article assesses the chronology of rustication against the periodisation of two more dominant memorial types: namely Gothic memorials, which prevailed in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Art Deco memorials, which gained popularity from the 1920s. It appraises regional differences in memorial style change, showing little English and Welsh variation in this after the mid-nineteenth century. There is attention to the hitherto little studied decline of the Gothic, and to the wider significance of the more secularised memorial forms that followed it. The role of these Gothic, rusticated, and Art Deco memorials for an understanding of social, attitudinal, religious and secularising change is emphasised.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , April 2018 , pp. 45 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

Notes

1. This development is emphasised in Griffin, C. J. and McDonagh, B., eds, Remembering Protest in Britain since 1500: Memory, Materiality and Landscape (Basingstoke, 2018)Google Scholar, Introduction.

2. An enormous literature is relevant, but see in particular Burgess, F., English Churchyard Memorials (1963, London, 1979)Google Scholar; Curl, J. S., The Victorian Celebration of Death (Newton Abbot, 1972)Google Scholar; Aries, P., Western Attitudes to Death from the Middle Ages to the Present (London, 1974)Google Scholar; Deetz, J., In Small Things Forgotten: the Archaeology of Early American Life (New York, 1977)Google Scholar; Llewellyn, N., The Art of Death: Visual Culture in the English Death Ritual, c. 1500–1800 (London, 1991)Google Scholar; Tarlow, S., Bereavement and Commemoration: an Archaeology of Mortality (Oxford, 1999)Google Scholar.

3. Among very brief mentions, see Burgess, English Churchyard Memorials, pp. 126–7, 139, 202. This remains the finest book on the pre-1850 genre, though he appears to dislike almost all subsequent developments. We do not share his critical attitude towards rusticated memorials – as ‘foreign’, asymmetrical, ‘made to ape rustic work’ – which prevented him from seeing their significance.

4. See, for examples, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rustication_(architecture)> [24th January 2018]. In our analysis of rusticated memorials we have discounted smooth-faced and regularly-shaped stone with recessed joints, occasionally found in the base of larger monuments, and conventionally included by architectural historians in definitions of rustication. For further terminology and definitions, see Summerson, J., The Classical Language of Architecture (London, 1996)Google Scholar; Curl, J. S., A Dictionary of Architecture (Oxford, 1999)Google Scholar; Curl, J. S., Classical Architecture: an Introduction to its Vocabulary and Essentials (London, 1992)Google Scholar; and Fleming, J., Honour, H. and Pevsner, N., The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture (Harmondsworth, 1991)Google Scholar.

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7. ‘Bossage’, the use of sharply pointed or raised decorated or patterned masonry – a late Gothic form sometimes termed Isabelline Gothic – is not really a feature of rusticated memorials and will not be covered or included here.

8. Clifton-Taylor, A., The Pattern of English Building (London, 1972), pp. 41 Google Scholar, 47–8.

9. On the wider issues here, see Goody, J., The Culture of Flowers (Cambridge, 1993)Google Scholar; Seaton, B., The Language of Flowers: a History (Charlottesville, 1995)Google Scholar; E. and Lehner, J., Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees (New York, 1960)Google Scholar. Engelhardt, M., ‘The language of flowers in the Victorian knowledge age’, Victoriographies, 3:2 (2013), 136–60;CrossRefGoogle Scholar B. Elliott, The Victorian Language of Flowers, Occasional Paper from the RHS Lindley Library, 10 (April, 2013), pp. 3–94; Burgess, English Churchyard Memorials, pp. 179–81, 184–6, 194, 202–6, 222, 234–5, 251; Davies, J. C., ‘The “tulip slates” of south Leicestershire and north-west Northamptonshire’, The Leicestershire Historian, 4:1 (1993)Google Scholar; Greenoak, F. and Roberts, C., Wildlife in the Churchyard: the Plants and Animals of God's Acre (1985, London, 1993).Google Scholar

10. The key book here is Thomas, K., Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England, 1500–1800 (London, 1983)Google Scholar. Thomas's excellent book may have missed an opportunity by not including memorials in its analysis.

11. Marsh, J., Back to the Land: the Pastoral Impulse in England, 1880–1914 (London, 1982)Google Scholar.

12. For other architectural examples, like Sandbeck Hall (Yorkshire), see Clifton-Taylor, Pattern of English Building, pp. 47–8; Clifton-Taylor and Ireson, English Stone Building, pp. 113–15; Hart, S., Flint Architecture of East Anglia (London, 2000), p. 17 Google Scholar (Holkham Triumphal Arch).

13. See the figurative example in Mytum, H., Recording and Analysing Graveyards (York, 2000), pp. 112–13Google Scholar, n. 8400 in his classification.

14. We are grateful to Richard Butler for translation. On Orla Knudsen, see Bird, C. and Rafter, K., This is Charlie Bird (Dublin, 2006)Google Scholar.

15. McPherson Robertson, I. J., ‘Hardscrabble heritage: the ruined blackhouse and crofting landscape as heritage from below’, Landscape Research, 40:8 (2015)Google Scholar. Such identification is not rustication as used here but it does speak to interesting parallel processes with regard to the rustic.

16. Parish Meeting Minutes, Newbold Verdon (Leicestershire), Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, DE 3155/4, 25th March 1924. Rough stone rustication is a common feature for war memorials: see, for modern examples, Borg, A., War Memorials from Antiquity to the Present (London, 1991)Google Scholar, plates 92, 136, 148, 160, 171, 173, 174, 177.

17. A Staff Reporter, ‘Couple Died Roped Together after Fall from Alpine Peak’, The Times, 19th January 1995, p. 3.

18. J. Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (London, 1892), pp. 970–2. An 1887 survey of 3,500 people rated ‘Rock of Ages’ as the most popular hymn. Bradley, I., Abide with Me: the World of Victorian Hymns (London, 1997), p. 193 Google Scholar.

19. Ottewill, D., The Edwardian Garden (London, 1980), p. 54 Google Scholar.

20. Ruskin, J., The Seven Lamps of Architecture (London, 1849)Google Scholar; Ruskin, J., The Elements of Drawing (1857, London, 1991).Google Scholar

21. Ruskin, J., ‘The Nature of Gothic’, in The Stones of Venice, Vol. II: the Sea-Stories (New York, 2007), p. 167 Google Scholar.

22. Matthew 16:18; and see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter>: ‘Names and etymologies’, and ‘“Rock” dialogue’ [3rd November 2017]. See further references there.

23. Respectively, rusticated memorials for Ernest Hadley, First Medical Superintendent of the City General Hospital, Leicester, 1913–40, died 1947 (Barkby Cemetery, Leicestershire); Thomas Mayo, JP and repeatedly Mayor of Loughborough, died 1930 (Loughborough Cemetery); Dr Christopher D. Briggs, no date (Wigston Cemetery, Leicestershire).

24. Burgess, English Churchyard Memorials, pp. 189–90, and fig. 23 (pp. 287 ff).

25. A very similar drawing of dual (rock and wood) rustication is in Burgess, English Churchyard Memorials, p. 127.

26. Cox and Sons, Illustrated Catalogue of Monuments, Crosses, and Headstones, Tomb Rails, Mural Tablets, Brasses, Bronzes, etc. (n.p., 1875), pp. 1, 15.

27. Monk, W. H. and Steggall, C., Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861, London, 1889 Google Scholar), p. 137.

28. A good example of such a rusticated tree monument (from Irvine, Ayrshire, 1881) is in Willsher, Understanding Scottish Graveyards, pp. 24 ff, plate 15.

29. Wales was a major exception to the arguments about declining place associations on English memorials in Snell, K. D. M., Parish and Belonging: Community, Identity and Welfare in England and Wales, 1700–1950 (Cambridge, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ch. 8. This is rightly, evocatively and bilingually stressed by Stuart Stanton in his filmed observations on Welsh memorials: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H13V-kf5qy0&list=PLLpfS84cDKTF2WPUpvSn6UsgPl3YABpI0&index=38> [24th January 2018].

30. Another fine example is at Birmingham Warstone Lane cemetery, being the memorial to Isherwood Sutcliffe (died 1871).

31. See, for example, the memorial ‘The Empty Chair’, Dispersed of Judah Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana, US, <https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=The+Empty+Chair,+Dispersed+of+Judah+Cemetery,+New+Orleans,+Louisiana,+USA> [4th January 2018].

32. On such memorials, see Burgess, English Churchyard Memorials, pp. 184–5.

33. See the figurative example in Mytum, Recording and Analysing Graveyards, pp. 112–13, n. 8450 in his classification.

34. King James Bible: Revelations, 20:12.

35. ‘Salvation Army Memorial Service’, The Times, 25th September 1906.

36. A fine example is at Knighton churchyard (Leicestershire), memorial to Richard Taylor, 1842–1905.

37. For a figurative example, see Mytum, Recording and Analysing Graveyards, pp. 113–14, n. 8500.

38. For example, among a huge literature, T. Smith, Original Designs for Christian Memorials (Oxford, 1864); K. Clark, The Gothic Revival: an Essay in the History of Taste (1928, London, 1996); C. Brooks, Mortal Remains: the History and Present State of the Victorian and Edwardian Cemetery (Exeter, 1989); M. Aldrich, Gothic Revival (London, 1994); Lewis, M. J., The Gothic Revival (London, 2002)Google Scholar; Brittain-Catlin, T., De Maever, J. and Bressani, M., eds, Gothic Revival Worldwide: A. W. N. Pugin's Global Influence (Leuven, 2017)Google Scholar.

39. One is reminded of James Deetz's and Edwin Dethlefsen's ‘battleship curve’: ‘If you were to prepare a graph showing how the designs change in popularity through time, the finished product might look something like three battleships viewed from above, the lower one with the bow showing, the center one in full view, and the third visible only in the stern. This shape, frequently called a: “battleship-shaped” curve, is thought by archaeologists to typify the popularity career of any cultural trait across time.’ This model of change was apparent from study of the earlier transitions between death's head, cherub, and urn and willow styles of memorialisation, from the Stoneham cemetery, north of Boston (Massachusetts), with their respective chronologies. See Deetz, J. and Dethlefsen, E. S., ‘Death's heads, cherub, urn and willow’, Natural History, 76:3 (1967), 28–37 Google Scholar, esp. fig. 1; Dethlefsen, E. S. and Deetz, J., ‘Death's heads, cherubs and willow trees: experimental archaeology in colonial cemeteries’, American Antiquity, 31:4 (1966), 502–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40. It could perhaps be argued that there is greater continuity of design than is apparent in Figure 14, as many modern memorials bear shifting resemblances to (or echoes of) classic Art Deco styles, in for example rectilinear internal and profile designs, but we have defined ‘Art Deco’ along the lines of its original 1920s and 1930s manifestations, and not included significantly deviating later styles in the tabulations of Figure 14. For classic Art Deco forms, see Menten, T., ed., The Art Deco Style, in Household Objects, Architecture, Sculpture, Graphics, Jewelry (New York, 1972)Google Scholar; Hillier, B., Art Deco of the 20s and 30s (1968, London, 1972)Google Scholar; Duncan, A., Art Deco Complete: the Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920s and 1930s (New York, 2009)Google Scholar; Yorke, T., Art Deco House Styles (Newbury, Berkshire, 2011)Google Scholar; C. Benton, T. Benton and G. Wood, eds, Art Deco, 1910–1939 (London, 2015).

41. The dead do not bury themselves, though they frequently specify memorial preferences, and thus tastes in memorials also reflect choices of the surviving generation. The extent of these cohort influences upon memorialisation is historically largely unknown. On some social classes of the deceased commissioning their own memorials, see Penny, N., Church Monuments in Romantic England (New Haven, CT, 1977), pp. 17–21 Google Scholar.

42. On the rise of cremation, to about 75 per cent of deaths in Britain now, see Jupp, P., From Dust to Ashes: the Replacement of Burial by Cremation in England, 1840–1967 (London, 1990)Google Scholar; Jupp, P., ‘Cremation or Burial? Contemporary Choice in City and Village’, in Clark, D., ed., The Sociology of Death (Oxford, 1993)Google Scholar; Crocke, T., ed., The Churchyards Handbook (London, 2001), pp. 56–71 Google Scholar; <http://www.srgw.info/CremSoc/LegalEtc/Bibliography.html> [5th January 2018]; <http://www.cremation.org.uk/history-of-cremation-in-the-united-kingdom> [24th January 2018]. Despite an increasing spread of memorialisation for those buried, cremation may have diminished the craft of memorial stonemason, and there was concern about this in the 1950s. See Burgess, English Churchyard Memorials, p. 57.

43. Unpublished parish-register and churchyard studies (MA students, ‘Churchyard Projects’, Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester) broadly suggest that about 3–10 per cent of churchyard burials in the early nineteenth century have surviving memorials in the present day; the figure for the mid-twentieth century is over 50 per cent.

44. <http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LEI/Loughborough> [4th January 2018].

45. See <www.charnwood.gov.uk/pages/loughborough_cemetery_conservation_area> [4th January 2018].

46. Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, <https://www.cwgc.org/> [4th January 2018].

47. The evidence for provincial and indeed American lagged adoption of memorial styles in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is much more compelling. Compare, for example, the chronological arguments in Burgess, English Churchyard Memorials with Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten, and Dethlefsen and Deetz, ‘Death's heads, cherubs and willow trees’.

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53. Marsh, Back to the Land, p. 35.

54. For example, see Bruce, ‘Secularization and church growth’, p. 274.

55. ‘The scattering of cremated remains is the ultimate symbol of freedom and independence, both from kin, kind and locality.’ P. Jupp, 'Cremation or Burial?’, p. 184.

56. W. Wordsworth, ‘Essay upon Epitaphs’, in W. J. B. Owen and J. W. Smyser, eds, The Prose Works of William Wordsworth, 3 vols (Oxford, 1974), Vol. II, p. 56.

57. Hardy, T., 1912 Preface to Far From the Madding Crowd (1874, London, 1974)Google Scholar, pp. 38–9; Hardy, T., ‘The Dorsetshire Labourer’, in Moynahan, J., ed., The Portable Thomas Hardy (1977, Harmondsworth, 1979 Google Scholar), pp. 716–17, 725, 734.