Nunhead Cemetary.

[joyce341]

 Just posting on the offchance,to see if anyone liveing near Nunhead cemetary who go,s there often(as I believe it is a park now) could help find a headstone,I have a map sent to me locateing where it is,would love to find it,my niece and i intend to go there later this year.it is my husbands mother,my nieces grandmother,Florence Annie Lawrence,died in 1936,I understand from communication it may not be possible as might be in undergrowth.will put map on if someone can help.
thanks for you time.
Joyce

[Gaie]

Hi Joyce
I'm quite local to Nunhead Cemetery, and could visit tomorrow if you'd like.  Regarding overgrowth, I've visited there once before for another RC member, and it is very dilapidated in places, but I'm quite happy to have a root around.

Probably not a good idea to post the cemetery map online (copyright etc, got to keep RC squeaky clean ) but I'll PM you my e-mail address and you can send it to me by ordinary e-mail if you'd like.

I'll take the dog and a camera.....!!!

Kind regards
Gaie

[joyce341]

Thanks Gaie
                   That would be brilliant,something my niece and i wanted to do for a long time,have also a copy of the headstone,I recieved this from my husbands adopted brothers son,we did,nt know it existed.thanks again.
Joyce

[stewart_M]

Just posting on the offchance,to see if anyone liveing near Nunhead cemetary who go,s there often(as I believe it is a park now) could help find a headstone,I have a map sent to me locateing where it is,would love to find it,my niece and i intend to go there later this year.it is my husbands mother,my nieces grandmother,Florence Annie Lawrence,died in 1936,I understand from communication it may not be possible as might be in undergrowth.will put map on if someone can help.
thanks for you time.
Joyce

I visited Nunhead cemetery about 8 years ago to try and trace the graves of three of my relatives all who died in 1935/1936.  I have the exact plot details (their grave numbers are all around 39000 area) right in the corner of the cemetery unfortunately this area was hit by German bombs during WW2.  This area is now very overgrown and the broken gravestones are lying around or placed in piles and although I was in the exact spots I could not find the actual stones; it was very overgrown, dark and a bit eerie around that part of the cemetery!  It's a great shame but I do intend to go back

Stewart

[joyce341]

Hi Stewart,
                 Thanks for that,Gaie is going to look for me,so keep your fingers crossed,my mother-in-law died 1936,it is very good of her to offer and extremely greatful to her.
kind regards
Joyce

[Gaie]

Hello Joyce, and thank you Stewart for the fore-warning!

Well, Joyce, get out your machete, and if you're wise, call Ray Mears , it could be a bumpy ride   The area where your mother-in-law was buried is now a brambly wood

Nunhead cemetery is the second biggest cemetery in London, and unfortunately was abandoned by its owners after years of neglect some time in the 60s or 70s.  Although Southwark council bought it (for £1), and parts of it are still used for new burials, a large area of it is now a nature reserve, and the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery (FoNC) have a policy of conservation not restoration (I can't imagine the cost of major restoration, the site is 52 acres.....).

Well, Rizla (my dog) and I had a lovely walk around, and did manage to get some way through the undergrowth, but he is a Westie, ie little, he couldn't manage some of the bits on his own, and I couldn't manage whilst carrying him to get any further, so....

We're going back with the children and some friends this weekend - hooray!!!     It may be possible to get to the grave along the cemetery wall, even though the trees and undergrowth are right up against it in many parts.  We did walk up the Brockley Way which runs up the other side of the wall, but it runs uphill and the wall is quite high in places, so no luck that way.

Wish us luck for this weekend; I was so engrossed I forgot to use the camera, doh, but we went in the morning and the weather held out, didn't rain until the afternoon.

Kind regards
Gaie (honorary Mears)

[joyce341]

Hi Gaie,
       thanks for trying fpr me.
             take care
               Joyce

[Valda]

I also had a plot number for the gravestone I was looking for at Nunhead. I had previous experience of London overgrown cemeteries, I macheted my way through parts of Abney Park cemetery in Hackney (it helps if you go in late autumn/early spring) but Nunhead was something else as it really is overgrown and a bit like primeval forest in lots of places. Machetes sometimes just aren't big enough. To have reached the spot I was trying to access I would have needed a chain saw.

In its time some very wealthy people were buried at Nunhead and very large mounuments can be seen amongst the trees.

http://www.heritagedevelopment.co.uk/vdetail.asp?ID=271

http://www.derelictlondon.com/cemetery.htm

http://www.worldofbadger.co.uk/2008/05/14/i-see-dead-people-a-visit-to-nunhead-cemetery/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/image_galleries/satellite_photos2_gallery.shtml?6


Fantastic place to visit

Regards

Valda

[joyce341]

 Hi Valda,
              was it you who also had Lawrences in London?
                             Joyce