St.John’s graveyard
October 14, 2012 2 Comments
I have an abiding fondness for graveyards. I have spent hours in them. It is the peace, tranquillity. It is the wildlife that often find refuge here. Most importantly it is the graves themselves, and their headstones, testimony to past lives.
This graveyard belongs to St.John’s church in Church Road, Southend-on-Sea. I have walked past it many times, and again this morning. I have yet to spend much time in it, or the church. I am also fond of old churches and have visited many over the years. Sometimes this has been related to my family tree researching, but most often because I just enjoy wandering around old buildings.
I’m (slowly) working my way around the Magnificent Seven – the mixture of 19th Century egyptomania and nature’s reclamation is breathtaking.
I also had a fondness for grave & gravestones when I was a child, fascinated to understand the life that went before and have many photos of ancestors gravestones as part of our family history collection. The tranquilty is immense.
It always strikes me that not much is left behind for most ordinary folk, other than in the memories of those who loved them, which for some is enough. Only a few people in life are truly remembered, politicians, kings and queens, military commanders, musicians, poets, writers, architects, craftsman.
Sometimes a deed done is remembered much more than the person themselves, this weekend I learned about The Levellers and the struggle around the beginnings of our democratic rights in Essex in 1649.
There is a quote: If there is nothing else a man does in life, he should at least stand for something. The people buried here I am sure all stood for something in life, a daughter, son, brother, sister, husband, wife, father, mother, child and some of their deeds will also impact on future generations. So, I give thanks to our ancestors for all the struggles they endured, because without struggle their is no progress.