Skip to main content

Cedar of Lebanon at Highgate Cemetery

Sad loss of well-loved and historic tree

Sadly, Highgate Cemetery has reported the loss of, "its great old Cedar of Lebanon" The beloved tree predates the cemetery, having been planted more than 50 years before the London Cemetery Company began its layout began in 1836. It is not known exactly how old the Cedar was, but it was believed to be at least 250 years  

 Highgate Cemetery’s layout on seventeen acres of the former Ashurst Estate by Highgate Village, which was itself taken down to allow for the building of St Michael's Church, Highgate in 1830. The areas lie on a steep hillside, facing the centre of London, and winding down Swain’s Lane past Waterlow Park towards Hampstead Heath, Dartmouth Park and Kentish Town. Garden designer, David Ramsey, created exotic, formal planting. Stephen Geary, the architect, and surveyor, James Bunstone Bunning designed the stunning monuments and chapels of what soon became London’s most fashionable cemetery. 

 Earth taken from around the ancient Cedar of Lebanon was used to create the Circle of Lebanon, which leads up to perhaps the most unique aspect the celebrated Egyptian Avenue, a walkway bordered by sixteen vaults. Close by the Terrace Catacombs was built in 1842. Along with seventy other monuments, these gothic wonders have all been listed by English Heritage. Some of the most identifiably Victorian of the monuments and headstones lie in the West Cemetery. 
Highgate Cemetery shared the news of the tree's demise on its Twitter account in August 2019
When the cemetery was designed, the tree was incorporated into the plans. Visitors on the tour to the West Cemetery could see the gravestones radiating out from the magnificent arboreal centre. Cemetery staff requested an arboreal report before making the necessary decision of the tree's removal. Experts described the tree as, "high risk" as a result of years of significant decay. Dr Ian Dungavell, Chief Executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, has stated they are searching for a replacement tree of a similar size.  

 All Highgate Cemetery burial records are available now on Deceased Online. They include digital scans of original registers, grave details indicating all those buried in each grave, and section location maps for graves (unfortunately, maps for a few graves are not available).

 And please get in touch to let us know of any ancestors you have found buried in Highgate. Just post a message via the Comments Box below, or on our Facebook or Twitter pages!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

London's Spa Fields

Deceased Online has just uploaded around 114,000 burial records from Spa Fields in the modern London borough of Islington Spa Fields today, with the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer in the background Spa Fields Burial Ground became notorious in the 19th century for its overcrowded and insanitary conditions. Located in the parish of St James, Clerkenwell, the grave yard was not far from the ever-increasing City of London. Spa Fields was known also as Clerkenwell Fields and Ducking-pond Fields in the late 18th century, hinting at a dark side to what was then a summer evening resort for north Londoners. What would become a cemetery was a ducking pond in the rural grounds of a Spa Fields public house. It was here in 1683 that six children were drowned while playing on the ice. In his History of Clerkenwell (1865) William J. Pinks wrote that visitors, "came hither to witness the rude sports that were in vogue a century ago, such as duck-hunting, prize-fighting, bull-baiting
34 comments
Read more

Haslar and Netley Military Hospital Cemeteries

Following on from last week's post, I'm looking further into Deceased Online 's latest collection of burials. These military burials were digitized in partnership with The National Archives .  Two notable institutions in the collection are Haslar Royal Navy Cemetery and the Royal Victoria Hospital in Netley. Both Haslar and Netley (as it was more commonly known) were Britain's foremost military hospitals during the bloodiest years of war in the western hemisphere The Royal Hospital Haslar and Clayhill Royal Navy Cemetery, Gosport, Hampshire The Royal Hospital Haslar dates from 1753. For over two hundred and fifty years Haslar served as one of main hospitals caring for sailors and marines of the Royal Navy and merchant services. Patients came from ships as well as from naval and seamen institutions in nearby Portsmouth and Gosport. The hospital closed as the last official military hospital in 2007. The Haslar Cemetery closed in April 1859 but the neighbouring Cl
4 comments
Read more

New Maps Online for St Peter's Cemetery and Churchyard

New data for Scotland will be appearing on Deceased Online over the next couple of weeks. Here we give you an insight into our holdings on the cemeteries of Aberdeen. The ‘Granite City’, as Scotland's third largest city is known, features strongly in the Deceased Online database . You can search around 248,000 records from nine cemeteries and burial grounds, including St Nicholas Churchyard, Trinity Churchyard, Nigg Cemetery, John Knox Churchyard, St Peter's Cemetery - linked with Spital Churchyard, St Clement's Churchyard, Old Machar Churchyard, Grove Cemetery and Nellfield Cemetery. We have just added detailed grave location maps of Spitak (aka St Peter’s) Churchyard and St Peter’s Cemetery. Located in the north of the city, these two cemeteries form one vast graveyard. The Deceased Online database contains registers, which date from 1767, for over 160,000 burials. Besides the registers are the Dues Books. For the earliest dates these cover the date of burial
4 comments
Read more