Uncovering a grave

‘So what are we doing this morning Adam?’ Our usual question when we arrive for a Highgate cemeteries gardening shift – and usually the answer is ivy clearance, bramble bashing, or reducing the overhanging trees so that visitors can walk underneath. But this morning we were put on ‘special duty’ – uncovering a grave.  We assumed that a descendant must have been enquiring and the authorities, having located the grave on the original map of the cemetery, wanted it uncovered. Here it is….

That white stone to the right at the bottom of the picture, totally overgrown with ivy and with two small conifers and a laurel growing out of it.

So, first to remove the trees – here is Peter felling the conifers…

…and Robin tackling the laurel.

Next to attack the ivy whose thick mat of roots, was covering the grave. Fiona with the loppers  is cutting and pulling the loose growth off the top.

In the process she uncovered the stumps of the trees that Peter had just felled the roots of which, unable to make their way downwards through the stone of the grave, had spread outwards through the leafsward which covered it.

In the process they had created a thick carpet of soil and ivy roots, some finger thick, others fine but tightly matted. If you can use a lopper to cut through the thicker roots you can sometimes pull up these ‘mats’ in great lumps as Peter and Robin are trying to do here.

This often works better as a joint effort – one person pulling up on the mat while another snips along the bottom through the finer matter roots.

This is, however, extremely hot work and, given that it was already a pretty warm day, we were soon all dripping with sweat. However, working as a finely honed team – we managed to remove the main matting to reveal – a grave!

A good deal of careful scraping with the plastic trowel (you cannot use metal which would damage the stone work) and we were getting there…..

‘Sacred to the Memory of Charles Roworth of Bell Yard Temple Bar in London’ who died in 1850 aged 86 – and Frederick Roworth who died aged 26 in 1856 – probably, Robin suggested, in the cholera outbreak of the mid 1850s. (Robin is hugely knowledgable about many of the graves in the cemeteries, a fount of information and a delight to have on a session.) And here is their ‘burial ticket’, unearthed by Fiona from the records while we were brushing off the grave.

Olive admiring our handiwork…..

…a cleared route through from the path for those who want to go and visit the Roworths….

…and the grave a seen from the main path.

A very satisfactory morning’s work.