BARNES CEMETERY, SW15
London Archive Chronicles
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It had just gone 5pm on that afternoon and the light was beginning to fade. I was walking by Beverley Brook towards Barnes to take a photograph of a view I had seen a few months ago. I knew well enough that it is rare, if not impossible, to come across the same view twice but I couldn’t get it off my mind. I picked up my pace and turned off from the well-trodden path to what looked like could be a short cut. What I didn’t expect was to stumble upon an abandoned Victorian cemetery.
There is not much information about the cemetery available, just the basics as well as alleged sightings of ghosts on online forums. The cemetery was established in 1854, at a time when Barnes was a small village. The cemetery was used as an additional burial ground to the local parish churchyard. In 1966 it was acquired by the Richmond-upon-Thames council and after plans of turning it into a lawn cemetery were put aside, the cemetery was abandoned and subsequently vandalised. The Commonwealth War graves still appear to be maintained. A few notable people have been buried there, for example Ebenezer Cobb Morley who is considered as one of the founders of the Football Association and therefore, modern football. There is also the grave of a local widow and a victim of a gruesome murder, Julia Martha Thomas. She was murdered by her servant in 1879 who dismembered the body and threw most of them into the Thames. Thomas’ remains were buried in the Barnes cemetery, all except her head which wasn’t found at the time. In 2010 a skull was found in no other’s but Sir David Attenborough’s garden, close to Thomas’ cottage that still stands, and after a police investigation with modern forensic science, it was concluded that the skull was that of Thomas. Of course, I had to photograph the cemetery, even though I hadn’t much time. After taking few shots and wowing that I would come back, I crossed the street to Barnes Common and made my way towards the spot in the woods that I wanted to photograph. As I got there or thereabouts, I took a light meter reading – f.5.6/4. I could just about take the photograph. I looked through the viewfinder, took a few steps here and there, moved the camera slightly to compose the image but in the end decided not to press the shutter. I decided that I would be happier with only the mental image. My work was done for the day and I began trotting along Castelnau to get to Hammersmith station. I have walked the length of Castelnau three times now. Each time I have thought, with the dramatic expiration that one usually associates with children and the imminence of their tantrums, that the road never ends. Now I should mention that in my day-to-day life, my legs are my regular, if not favourable, means of transport. When I am a tourist on the Continent, I am a flaneur. I am known to take other means of transportation to various parts of the UK to go rambling. Indeed, ‘to ramble’ is one of my favourite words in English, as is its counterpart in Finnish: ‘vaeltaa’. Both words have their own nuances and connotations while expressing the same activity: to walk for pleasure. In other words, I enjoy walking. However, for some reason, it has been the flat, dull and endless road, Castelnau, that has almost broken me. As well as the road, Castelnau features in the names of many other sites in the neighbourhood: Castelnau Library, Castelnau Playground, Castelnau Community Centre. My internet sources are only in agreement about the circumstances that caused the ancestors of a local blue blooded real estate developer, Major Charles Lestock Boileau, to flee from France to England and settle in northern Barnes: they were Huguenots and fled religious persecution in the 17th century – but cite different locations for their lost estate, like Castelnau-le-Lez and Castelnau Valence. One site even suggests that the descendants of the French branch of the family would still live in their ancestral castle near Nimes, France. Be as it may, it takes more than a romantic etymology to change my feelings towards that road. The sight of the Hammersmith Bridge, one of my favourite bridges in London, revived my spirits. On the north bank, there are a few pubs where, I just decided, I would have a hearty meal and a large glass of wine. A journey back to Greenwich could wait for an hour or so. Out of the three photographs I took of the cemetery, I chose this one for the website because it reminded me of how it felt to suddenly realise that I was walking in the middle of overgrown gravestones. The scene resembles a chapel with the arch formed of branches, suffused light from behind the trees and the gravestones on the ground, overgrown, forgotten, one of them in the shape of a cross. And there is that simmering, eerie stillness, an anticipation to hear the rustle of leaves, to turn around and see no one there. (originally published 02.10.2022) |
© Carita Silander
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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
https://flickeringlamps.com/2014/08/15/barnes-old-cemetery-an-abandoned-graveyard-being-reclaimed-by-nature/ https://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/castelnau/ http://edithsstreets.blogspot.com/search?q=castelnau https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14034969 https://gw.geneanet.org/carrannoo?lang=en&p=charles+lestock&n=boileau |
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Top image: A villa on Castelnau, built by Major Charles Lestock Boileau c.1842, bottom image: Boileau Arms, now a nursery and preschool. All photographs courtesy of the London Picture Archive
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