Friday 31 August 2012
Countryside Books: A Forgotten Corner ... ... ...
Countryside Books: A Forgotten Corner ... ... ...: There is an old, disused graveyard near my house. Bruce the Wonder Dog and I often pass it on our evening walks. It's a little on th...
A Forgotten Corner ... ... ...
There
is an old, disused graveyard near my house.
Bruce the Wonder Dog and I often pass it on our evening walks. It's a little on the neglected side but that just adds to its charm. Yesterday evening it looked particularly
attractive with the sun shining through the foliage of the old cedar tree and
lighting up the windows in the little derelict chapel.
I
have to admit I find it fascinating.
Unfortunately it isn’t open to the public, but I love to peer through
the railings and see what I can spot; angels and scrolls, crosses and ornate
headstones, cherubs and garlands. There
even appears to be quite a large chest tomb there. I would love to be able to walk around and
take a closer look at the inscriptions.
If
they have an open day (which they occasionally do, I’m told) then I shall
definitely pay a visit and, when I do, I shall go armed with a copy of
GRAVESTONES, TOMBS & MEMORIALS (£5.99) by Trevor Yorke.
I’ve
already read through it and have discovered an amazing number of things about
the significance and symbolism of decoration and ornamentation that I never
realised. The inscriptions on
gravestones can tell us the facts about the person buried beneath but the
imagery used to decorate the grave gives everything a whole new dimension – how
the family felt about the death; what it meant to them; even what profession or
interest they held while alive.
I
can’t see it from the roadside but I know that my little local cemetery has a
gravestone in the shape of a car wheel.
It commemorates James George Mann, who died in November 1922 aged
19. It is believed that he may have been
an early racing car driver.
So,
if you too like to explore churchyards then I highly recommend taking a copy of
Trevor Yorke’s book along with you. I think you’ll be surprised at how much you
can discover, not only about the people who are buried there and their standing
in the local community but also about the history of your area.
Trevor
explains burial practices down the ages and details the development of the
churchyard and the cemetery. He looks at
the period styles of gravestones and tombs, and the shapes and features that
help to date them. Using a wide range of
photographs and his own illustrations, he examines the carvings and symbols
that can be found and offers clues to their possible meanings.
For a full list of our titles, please visit our website at www.countrysidebooks.co.uk. If you order from our website there is a 20% discount.
Happy walking.
Deb
Friday 3 August 2012
The Ironing Zone
Whilst ironing the other evening I was musing
on how quickly I was getting through the pile of washing with my super-steamy iron. With all my gadgets, gizmos and state of the
art domestic appliances things are nowhere near as time consuming and difficult as they were when I was first married. I may still moan about
doing the housework but it’s nothing compared to what it used to be like ... and not even close to the sheer physical labour my mother had to do!
While in the ‘ironing zone’ I did one of those time-warp, flashback thingies to back when I was a child (whirly special effect can be inserted here). There was Mum ironing the laundry with a heavy, clunky old iron and having to use a damp cloth if she needed to steam the creases out of anything. And all that laundry had been washed in a boiler, rinsed in the sink and then put through the mangle!
Ah, the mangle! I remember that well. Mum used it for squeezing the water out of
the washing and dad used it for crushing sticks of rhubarb when he was making
wine (no, I’m not joking – he really did).
Times change. And when they do it’s fast. New inventions suddenly appear and are accepted so quickly it's as if we have never been without them. It's hard enough to imagine life before the internet or mobile phones; but what was it like without electricity, running water or flushing toilets? All these innovations must have revolutionised the lives of the average family.
The Domestic Revolution Explained by Stan Yorke was
certainly an eye-opener for me. Just a
hundred years ago barely half the country had gas and very few people had
electricity. Domestic life has changed
so dramatically over the decades - it's fascinating to see just how we have
progressed.
For a full list of our titles please visit our website www.countrysidebooks.co.uk
Wishing you all 'domestic bliss'
Deb
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