Victorian Cemeteries
Mike Higginbottom
- Region:
- Anywhere
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Architectural and social history
- Fee:
- Paid: Dependent on size of audience and distance travelled from South Yorkshire
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 23rd November 2017
- Tagged:
- Victorian Architecture | Cemeteries | Sanitation
It is impossible to understand nineteenth-century England without an appreciation of the Victorian attitude to death. In a sense, the nineteenth century celebrated death as a part of human experience, in the same way that the twentieth century celebrated sex.
The most distinctive memorials to this fascinating aspect of Victorian culture are the great company cemeteries of the 1830s and 1840s, laid out at great expense in London and the major industrial cities, thickly populated with extravagant monuments, intended as a solution to an ecological crisis, and now themselves a significant environmental problem.
At last recognised as repositories not only of human remains but of some of the most evocative and moving examples of Victorian architecture, landscaping, statuary and other monumental art, the great necropoles of British cities document beliefs, attitudes and taste as well as lives.
Visiting the surviving company cemeteries vividly captures the pride, ostentation, peace and certainty with which our forefathers faced the most inevitable fact of life.
Views: 1232 | Enquiries: 1About Mike Higginbottom
I am a freelance history lecturer specialising in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with a background in university extramural education.
I offer distinctive, life-enhancing insights into the past, particularly the recent past, for people who enjoy visiting places and recognising the human stories behind this historical heritage.
I lecture for the Arts Society (formerly the National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies [NADFAS]) in the UK, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.
Whether lecturing, writing or guiding tours, I provide detailed information in a lucid and entertaining way. My publications and lectures are copiously illustrated, as much as possible using my own photography.
Mike Higginbottom Interesting Times is the brand for my history education work – tours, lectures and publications. My blog is a fund of interesting, sometimes quirky insights into places, people and historical events.
I'm based in Sheffield and willing to travel anywhere in the UK or further afield.
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- Dream Palaces: an introduction to cinema architecture
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- A Look Round Attercliffe
- Waterways and Railways across the Derbyshire Peak
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