Old Church St Pancras

[KPM]

Hi

I have ancestors buried in the churchyard of Old Church St Pancras between c1840 - 1860 and would like to know if I am likely to locate a headstone if I visit?  I have read that many of the graves have been relocated but cant really find any more specific details.  There must be a record of the graves which were moved?

Can anyone shed any light on this for me please?

Many thanks

Anne-Marie

[Valda]

Hi

Nearly all central London churchyards were shut in the first part of the 1850s. They had simply become overwhelmed by the numbers of burials needed for an ever growing city population. Churchyards were far to small to bury the numbers necessary and had become a health risk. Burials in central London from this time onwards were nearly always in the large local civic cemeteries which were built and designed for that purpose from the 1830s onwards.

St Pancras Old Churchyard would be an example of such a churchyard

'The appearance presented by the ground of Old St. Pancras's parish is very extraordinary. Unaided imagination would scarcely reach to it, and we have therefore pencilled down its general aspect. An account of the number of bodies here deposited would startle the most apathetic.
St. Pancras' ground is truly a distressing sight. The stones - an assembly of reproachful spirits - are falling all ways; the outbuildings put up on its confines are rent, and the paved pathways are everywhere disrupted, such is the loose and quaking state of the whole mass. The practice of pit-burial is still continued in this ground. When we were there last, we found a hole with six coffins in it, waiting its complement of about double that number!
(London Shadows, by George Godwin, 1854)'


http://www.burial.magic-nation.co.uk/bgstpancrasnorth.htm


'In the 1860s, construction of the Midland Railway Line into the station ran through part of the St Pancras churchyard. Skulls and thigh-bones lay strewn about during the trial diggings, prompting the Vicar of St Pancras to complain and an eminent architect by the name of Arthur Blomfield was entrusted to oversee the exhumations and dismantling of tombs......

He gave the task to his trainee Thomas Hardy

'Each of the unearthed bodies was respectfully reinterred, while the headstones were placed harum scarum around the ash tree, leading it to be known as The Hardy Tree.....When the work finished in 1867, an estimated 8,000 dead Londoners had been relocated. The Channel Tunnel works needed more land still, and the St Pancras Churchyard was dug up again, though this time with archaeologists in attendance.'


http://www.thecnj.com/camden/2007/110807/stpancras110807_14.html



Regards

Valda

[corinne]

Try searching old messages about this.  I know some time ago someone asked the same question and there were quite a number of messages back about it, including a couple from me where I actually put some photos on. 

The short answer is that no, you almost certainly won't find a gravestone if you visit.  There is a yew tree there around which a whole pile of gravestones were stacked, but many more than that have been moved.  From memory there has been more than one occasion when the whole area was re-modelled and gravestones were moved, and not just in recent years.    Someone else might be able to give more up-to-date information or answer your question about whether inscriptions were recorded.

[KPM]

Hi Valda and Corinne

Many thanks for your replies - Valda - the information has really helped, I did read about this some years ago but couldnt find the information again.

Corinne - I will see if I can find the old posts and have a read.

It does look unlikely that I will find my ancestors but at least I have their burial details.  I will still try and visit the churchyard later in the year but will not hold out any hope of finding the headstones (if they actually had one in the first place) .

Once again many thanks for your help

Anne-Marie

[Jeuel]

Hi

I visited St Pancras Old Church last year.  Mary Wollstonecraft's tomb is easy to find (there's a map at the entrance).  This is where her daughter and Percy Shelley made love.  It looks a bit exposed to me!

The "Hardy Tree" named after Thomas Hardy who oversaw the removal of gravestones to make way for the railway, is interesting, but the stones are all piled up together its impossible to read any of them.  Many other stones were destroyed before a public outcry ensured more care was taken.

[KPM]

Hi Jeuel

Certainly sounds well worth a visit.

It's such a shame that more care wasnt taken earlier before the stones were destroyed. 

I'll let you all know how I got on after my visit 

Anne-Marie

[corinne]

I was pleased I visited.  I didn't make a special trip to London for it, as I was already going there.  It was actually quite hard to even find the church, being around the back of Kings Cross/St Pancras stations and all the building work that was going on at the time (about 8-10 years ago).   I didn't hold any hope of actually finding headstones, but it was nice to get photos of the church and the Hardy Tree. 

[KPM]

Hi Corinne

Its certainly on my list of places to visit this year and as I'm under no illusions as to whether or not I'll find anyone I wont be disappointed

I have quite a few ancestors from London so I plan to make a day of it and visit some other churches etc (of course after making sure they're still there!!)

Anne-Marie