Anyone who has ancestors who were buried in the crypt, or vaults, of the new Marylebone Church between 1814, when it was built, and about 1859, when the last burial was carried out there, will probably be aware that the crypt was cleared in about 1982 and all remains moved to Brookwood Cemetery, where they now rest in a mass grave with a single memorial. This was to make room for a healing centre, the premise being that the space could better be used to help the living than as a repository for the long departed. The somewhat grisly task of removal was carried out by Farebrother Funeral Services, and I have a copy of the list they made of the coffins they found there. This list has date of death, name, age and vault number. I am happy to do lookups in this list, although not all people buried there are named – some are UNKNOWN – see the story below:
The crypt was open until some time in the 1930’s, and was apparently very tidy and nicely kept. It was bricked up before the Second World War. When it was finally opened again the place was in complete disarray, with coffins (and presumably remains also) strewn everywhere. This was attributed to the vibration from several large bombs that fell close by during Hitler’s onslaught on London, including the first bomb of the Blitz, which surgically removed the Madame Tussauds cinema the other side of Marylebone Road. Because the place was such a mess, the coffin plates may have been displaced, such that they couldn't with certainty match all of them to coffins. The very decorative brass coffin plates were removed to the University of Reading, Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, where they were kept for study of the engraving styles. They are (or were) very willing to hand these over to descendants. The head of department when we collected ours was Michael Twyman, but that was ten years ago.
The department’s website is
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/typography/ so it is worth asking if they have yours.
So if you know that your ancestors were buried in the Marylebone crypt, give me a shout.
I will put this posting on the London lookup Offers as well.
Best wishes,
Charles Bazalgette
For a look up request please start a new topic in the RESOURCE LOOKUP REQUEST board for London.
