FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73  
74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   >>   >|  
) the remains of the departed Friends being removed to their chapel yard in Bull Street, and a curious tale has been told in connection therewith. It is said that the representative of the Society of Friends was a proper man of business, as, indeed, most of them are, and that he drove rather a hard bargain with the railway directors, who at last were obliged to give in to what they considered to be an exorbitant demand for such a small bit of freehold. The agreement was made and the contract signed, and Friend Broadbrim went on his way rejoicing; but not for long. In selling the land he apparently forgot that the land contained bones, for when the question of removing the dead was mooted, the Quaker found he had to pay back a goodly portion of the purchase money before he obtained permission to do so. In clearing the old streets away to make room for New Street Station, in 1846, the London and North Western found a small Jewish Cemetery in what was then known as the "Froggery," but which had long been disused. The descendants of Israel carefully gathered the bones and reinterred them in their later-dated cemetery in Granville Street, but even here they did not find their last resting-place, for when, a few years back, the Midland made the West Suburban line, it became necessary to clear out this ground also, and the much-disturbed remains of the poor Hebrews were removed to Witton. The third and last of the Jewish Cemeteries, that in Betholom Row, which was first used in or about 1825, and has long been full, is also doomed to make way for the extension of the same line.--During the year 1883 the time-honoured old Meeting-house yard, where Poet Freeth, and many another local worthy, were laid to rest, has been carted off--dust and ashes, tombs and tombstones--to the great graveyard at Witton, where Christian and Infidel, Jew and Gentile, it is to be hoped, will be left at peace till the end of the world. In 1860, the Corporation purchased 105 acres of land at Witton for the Borough Cemetery. The foundation stones of two chapels were laid August 12, 1861, and the Cemetery was opened May 27, 1863, the total cost being nearly L40,000. Of the 105 acres, 53 are consecrated to the use of the Church of England, 35 laid out for Dissenters, and 14 set aside for Catholics and Jews. ~Census.~--The numbering of the people by a regular and systematic plan once in every ten years, only came into operation in 1801, and the most in
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73  
74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Cemetery

 

Street

 

Witton

 
Friends
 

remains

 
Jewish
 

removed

 

tombstones

 
Gentile
 
carted

Infidel

 

graveyard

 
Christian
 
Hebrews
 
doomed
 

extension

 

During

 

Cemeteries

 

Betholom

 
Freeth

worthy

 
honoured
 

Meeting

 

Catholics

 

Census

 

Dissenters

 
consecrated
 
Church
 

England

 

numbering


people

 

operation

 

regular

 

systematic

 

Borough

 

purchased

 

foundation

 
stones
 

Corporation

 

chapels


August
 

opened

 
carefully
 
freehold
 
agreement
 

contract

 

signed

 
demand
 
considered
 

exorbitant