Views of Nottingham

Tree Eating a Gravestone

I’ve recently been exploring the two large graveyards in Nottingham, Rock Cemetery on Mansfield Road, and The General Cemetery at Canning Circus. It was while I was at The General Cemetery today, that I came across the above bizarre sight.  As the tree has grown it has begun to engulf the headstone next to it – breaking it in the process.

As well as being very strange, this is also a poignant reminder of how fragile life was in Nottingham 150 years ago.  The father died age 40 and three young children, all aged under 8, followed him. Two of the children died within a week of each other. Judging by the quality of the headstone, these were not poor people either.

Infant mortality was rampant at this time, something that you cannot help be reminded of as you wander around these two cemeteries.  Figures collected between 1844 and 1850 showed that 44% of all deaths were children below the age of 5.