Gravestones that survived for hundreds of years have been reduced to rubble in St Alfege Park.
The headstones which had been positioned around the perimeter wall have been broken up and now sit in a large pile in the deconsecrated church yard.
Greenwich.co.uk understands that the Friends of St Alfege Park have been engaged in removing the headstones over a period of months, although this process was accelerated recently with the assistance of workers from the Community Payback probationary scheme.
The London Probation Trust confirmed to this website that a team from Community Payback has been working to clear the grounds at St Alfege Park. A spokesman commented:
“Part of this work has included the clearance of stone markers believed to be monumental and/or gravestones as requested by a representative of the Friends of St Alfege Park. This has now been completed and we are now working on another project within the grounds.”
Local historian, Horatio Blood, was left appalled by the scene of broken headstones:
“The smashing to smithereens of these historic tombstones is wanton destruction and a terrible tragedy. All that remains are a few sorry stumps, like broken teeth, and the ghost impressions left behind on the brick wall. The Friends of St Alfege Park appear to have succeeded where the rioters failed.”
But there is confusion as to who authorised the removal of the headstones in the park, with Greenwich Council legally obliged to ensure headstones remain safe in what is classed as a “closed church yard.”
Additionally, the removal and destruction of gravestones is subject to controls under the 1977 Local Authorities Cemeteries Act.
Greenwich Council’s cabinet member in charge of parks, Cllr John Fahy, told Greenwich.co.uk:
“There would seem to be some dispute as to what instructions were given to the Payback Team. As this is a Council responsibility I believe that the Friends should not have been involved. The memorial stones are an important legacy. Not all of the Headstones were damaged and I have asked Officers to look at creating a memorial garden where all of the tombstones can be brought together to create a large memorial plaque.”
A request for information on why the work was carried out had not been answered by the Friends group at the time of publication, but a clue may be found in the Management Report of 2008.
It says the headstones around the perimeter wall are prone to vandalism or damage from plants behind because of the gap between the stone and the wall. The report recommended mortaring the stones in place to reduce the possibility of damage.
The authors of the Plan also commented “memorials within the park add an excellent ambience to the site.
“If they were removed, it would significantly decrease the site’s visible heritage.”
The Friends of St Alfege Park was formed in recent years and its volunteers have worked to improve the quality of the park. It has become a venue for live theatre events and the Friends are aiming to achieve Green Flag status by 2013/14.
Update
Conservative Deputy Leader and shadow cabinet member for culture and the Olympics, Cllr Nigel Fletcher, commented:
“‘I’m shocked that this appalling desecration of headstones could be allowed to take place in this way, and I’m glad Cllr. Fahy is taking the matter seriously. Whatever instructions were given should never have been allowed to be carried out, and I hope we will get some answers, fast, on just what happened. ”
St Alfege is not closed. It is an open, working church.
As for why some headstones are behind a hedge. In 1941, towards the end of the Blitz, St Alfege Church was hit by several incendiary bombs. You can get an idea of the destruction from the image on this page
http://st-alfege.org/pages/1941bomb.php
I believe that a nearby row of houses was also destroyed. Greenwich suffered badly in the Blitz. If you look at bombing maps of London (where the bombs of the Blitz fell), it seems inconceivable that gravestones escaped being badly damaged and displaced by bombing.
Eg start here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/sep/06/london-blitz-bomb-map-september-7-1940
http://londonist.com/2009/01/london_v2_rocket_sitesmapped.php
I have seen but don’t have a copy of a map showing where all the burials were in the churchyard and what is now St Alfege Park, before it was closed for burials. There is hardly a free square foot. I think Greenwich Council has the map.
I have no direct knowledge of what happened nor how it came about. This is what I do know. St Alfege Park has been transformed in the last 2 or 3 years. It was an overgrown dirty place full of dogmuck, heavy drinkers, sometimes aggressive, and cottagers. It was to be entered with trepidation, if at all. Those problems have not been eliminated but they have been driven away by ordinary peaceful people using the park for picnicking, and for family actives. The birds encouraged by the bird feeding tables fill the park with birdsong. It is a place to sit and contemplate and remember:before, it was a place to be nervous and not to stay. As a result, I take my four children to St Alfege park to enjoy the fresh air of this oasis of nature in the city. Because the aggressive and unpredictable substance abusers have been largely driven away, and there are more families using the park, I am comfortable leaving my older children there by themselves. I would never have done that 2 years ago. Because they spend time in the park the children ask about the graves and the history of the park. In this way those who were buried there are remembered by the younger generation, instead of lying forgotten under brambles and White lightning cans. I wonder whether those buried there would have preferred the place where they’re buried to be filled with birdsong and the sound of children playing or of drunken arguments and dogs fighting. I have watched this transformation unfold and I have seen who had made it happen. I put it down to the inspiration and actions of one man: the same man who is the chair of the friends of St Alfege park. I hope those of you who have written to say you intend to visit this lovely park enjoy the beauty that this man has worked so hard to reveal for us all to enjoy.
I have no connection to this location but as a church and family historian I am utterly shocked at the damage that has been done. I have just here in Canada the church that my family had used for 100yrs closed and converted into a store. To walk throu it where three generations of my family were baptised, married and funerals took place helped me appreciate who I am and my Christian heritage. This all ends with a desecration service taking place at the end of the month. Now if there was a cemetery around the church and it was destroyed I would be furious!!!!!! A thousand apologies does not replace the tombstones that cannot be replaced and the info lost. I have a deep sadness for the families that have lost this part of their past.
We do have ancestors who were buried here. the last time we were there the gravestones were lined up around the ground, perfectly safe.
This is total desecration and I am most upset that no notes seems to have been taken of the names or part of the names that may have been there. To break them up is a further step that was unnecessary.
this shows no respect for a churchyard. History means nothing to people like this. Heads should roll on this one.
This was an appalling decision, and to make young offenders do the dirty deed is totally and utterly irresponsible. We should be teaching them respect and helping young offenders get back into society, not to destroy and disrespect in this way.
Was a list compiled of the gravestone information? the grave stones were of importance to the old British Commonwealth. One day I was hoping to find the grave of Robert Dawson who may or may not have been a ancestor, ancestry in common is the name, occupation Horse Dealing and obode in Essex. Robert unknown to many but of some importance. He was the first manager of the Australian Agricultural Company which is still in existence. Robert got on the wrong side of John MacArthur and lost his job, the last I can find of him was that he resided at Morden College and was buried in Greenwich. Admiral P.P. King spent time at Samuel Enderby III’s house he built in 1788 in Coombe Hill, now the Catholic Presbytery; King named the largest island that forms Cape Horn, the bottom of South America. His name is all over Queensland Australia from the Exploration of Ludwig Lleichardt. A bottle brush bush is named Dawsonia. It is beyond my comprehension why the gravestones were destroyed. England is not what it used to be in my day.
The story has now reached the pages of this week’s ‘Private Eye’ (14th-27th October 2011 no. 1299, Nooks and Corners page 14).
The story appears in the edition of ‘Private Eye’ published this week (14th-27th October 2011 no. 1299, Nooks and Corners page 14).
I was both sad and appalled at the destruction of the headstones. The people who did this should be made to restore them and re-erect. If it takes months and months of hard work then perhaps it will teach these destructive creatures a lesson.
RSA
Some thoughts come to mind that may not have been addressed by others. Even though the perpetrators may have been acting on orders, like soldiers, they still would have to use common sense. Soldiers that obey illegal commands to commit war crimes are occasionally, although too rarely, held responsible for their actions.
But these presumably were young offenders of unknown ages. If they were too young, or somehow too handicapped to know how to tell right from wrong, then the person(s) responsible for sending them to do this work unsupervised clearly bear the responsibility for their actions. Juvenile delinquents are not normally let loose unsupervised to do work where their actions could cause harm. The chain of responsibilty should be made clear and action taken to punish those who failed to do their duty.
I am 84 and half-American/half-English. In 1951, when I first visited my father’s church at Bassingham, Lincs., my grandparent’s graves were guarded by a huge, upright stone cross and those of many of their 400+ yrs. of ancestors marched down towards the river. Inside the church in an ancient oak chest were their records (since moved to a safer location). The last time we visited, the cross was tilting precariously and most of our stones had been taken up and stacked. When a cousin and I asked permission to have the cross reset, the visiting vicar said in a bored tone, “Oh, no … we prefer to just let things happen as they will.” It broke our hearts! At another village, my husband found his ancestral church had pulled up all the stones and relaid them as pavers – not only sacriligious, but a quick way to destroy the ancient inscriptions. No one seems to care anymore!
Take a look at the St. Alfege Church web site for a discussion of historic burials. It has been rebuilt more than once, but likely was the church of many kings, Greenwich being a favorite “home away from home”. I remember Henry VIII loved it.
Anne Hammond Connell
Florida
What a terrible thing for the church, the families who have lost part of their history, and Greenwich. If it really was the so-called “Friends” who destroyed the headstones, shouldn’t they be held responsible and then disbanded?
As a descendant of a Cornishman, Thomas Tambling, I feel so sad that none of my family will ever be able to visit these graves. I can’t understand how anyone could be involved in such a thing. As in Canada, we must be ever vigilant about protecting our heritage!
I cried when I saw these pictures. It reminded me of when I went to visit the cemetery where some of my ancestors were buried in Michigan, USA and found that the tombstones of my grandparents and great grandparents had been destroyed by vandals. What a waste.
I have just learned of this. Words do not allow me the express my outrage. Friends or enemies, must know that no graveyard, once consecrated, even if bombed during the Blitz, showed ever experience what has happened to this one. That many of these headstones were illegible is not the point. These “friends” are NAZIS, vicious creatures without a modicum of deceny in their bones. People like this can never be forgiven for what they have done. In their homes they probably kick their pets, violate their children and starve their parents. They should be hanged, drawn, and quartered and their heads placed on spikes. I eagerly await the U-tube of the president of this group of Friends, stating that he accepts full responsibility for this inexcusable action followed by his suicide. He either wasn’t clear in his instructions that the headstones were not to be destroyed, or alternatively, that his minionbs did exacrtly what he ordered. Either way he doesn’t deserve to live. In the name of the Prophet I declare a “fatwah” on him and those of the “Friends” who wielded the hammers.
My dear “Friends”…I demand to know exactly where my ancestors are buried down to the exact spot the stone was erected on many, many years ago…piece together their stones and replace them exactly where they were found, work you fingers down to the nubs, bare bones and all…glue the crumbs together…I don’t care what it takes you figure out a way to do it and you can pay for what ever is needed to get the job done…you can stay up all night for the next six years sorting through records and photographs for all I care but we all need to demand the return of these stones in one way or another by these so called “friends” !!!!! to their exact original spots…I will not take any excuses or “No” for an answer…demand is the only word that is needed here….and “impossible” is not an acceptable answer…! you figure it out !!
I have just seen the terrible destruction in St. Alfege Park, this is a cemetery so why are there vegetable gardens there. I’m secretary of a Friends group in Sydney, Australia and for the last 15 years have been looking after and restoring a beautiful 2 acre cemetery that was overgrown and unloved. The group has busted their guts over those years raising money to restore and look after it. We also have a group of young men doing community hours that work there, they are also learning to love and respect the cemetery. Our council is so supportive and helpful, I just can’t understand how this could happen. Someone should be bought to account and restoration fully paid for and the “Friends”reformed with people who care. I am so upset.
Ah – so you think this is funny? What a sophisticated sense of humor you have.
So who was supervising the Community Payback team? I think the people responsible for the destruction should be made liable for either their poor decision or poor supervision, whichever it was. Is this classed as criminal damage?In an ideal world the stones would be restored, but more realistically, those responsible – if they are concerned for their community’s heritage – should be forced to piece the stones back together and record all the details from them for future generations. Wouldn’t it be good if they volunteered to do this, and maybe the Community Payback team could help!
Thank you so much for this information. I hope it has what I need.
I’d like the Lost Cousins news letter for bringing this to our attention.
I have been in many cemeteries where broken stones have been cemented back together as much as possible against a wall or in the ground. I know it would take longer than destroying the tombstones and piling them up but it would show respect for those who are and have relatives buried there.
There was NO excuse to do this. Destroying history! There is no excuse.
Here in Canada we don’t usually get cemeteries or churchyards near as old as in Great Britain and it breaks my heart to see it destroyed in this manner.
The event wasn’t funny but the hysterical over-reaction is. Breaking up the stones was particularly stupid because they charaterise the park. Which is what it is. A park, not a cemetery. No graves were damaged. The stones were moved to stand around the side of the park over a hundred years ago so no-one’s alive to blame for that one. Most of the stones are completely blank through erosion. There are still lots left, more than 90% at a guess. So, once again:
It’s a park not a cemetery.
The stones are mostly blank and look like flagstones.
No graves were damaged. Because it’s a park. Not a cemetery.
It is no less like a cold blooded murder. You “Friends” may not care about family history but the majority of us do. Did you not offer these stones to the family? Did you not think about your own family? Perhaps one day your own stone will be destroyed and you will be forgotten. I hope that while you are burning in purgatory someone will pray for your soul. Eternal rest grant unto them oh Lord and let the perpetual light shine upon them may they rest in peace especially those who are forgotten and have no one to pray for them.
I am not being the least bit sarcastic. Destruction of the headstones is a very serious matter. The people responsible should be severely punished. The only reason the graveyard has become a Park is that invaders have desecrated it. We cut off the hands of the people who do this where I live.
Hello,
How sad this is. My husband and I visited St. Alfege’s in 1999 and was so impressed by the history and beauty of the church and grounds. I took some photos and later posted them in a blog article.
Susan Edminster, Washington State, USA
Deffinitely comes under damage to property.
What rot. Get off your high horse and do some work around the community, rather than calling for violence against those who, while well meaning, make stupid mistakes.
A shame you’re not a Christian. Because a Christian would recognise that the stupid destruction of a 200year old gravestone, which has already been moved from its site in a deconsecrated graveyard, is entirely different from murder.
Gravestones are not monuments to be worshipped – that’s what the Romans did, not Christians. They are a symbol of remembrance, and to damage them is stupid and thoughtless, but it won’t affect anyone’s chance of salvation.
People are mistaking sentimentality for sense.
You must be kidding !! Do you honestly believe headstones are worth keeping only if they are legible?? And we Americans thought the English were civilized.
Jeez, I’m as angry as the next guy; someone was either damned stupid or mindlessly destructive and we still don’t have a proper explanation. But…
1. It’s not a cemetery, it’s a park.
2. The gravestones are of aesthetic interest and are valuable as historic artefacts, but almost certainly none of them had any decipherable or meaningful inscriptions left and have no family history research significance.
3. These stopped being functional headstones an awfully long time age. There’s no grave desecration involved.
Personally I still want to know WTF happened. In detail. Someone took a hammer to these. Why?
I read of the desecration of headstones from St Alphege’s Greenwich with total shock & disbelief. Removing them & replacing them to form a retaining wall I could understand, but smashing them to smithereens? I have a gt gt aunt & uncle bur there so I am hoping someone photographed & documented these before they were smashed so wantonly. With Friends like those, who needs enemies. Kiwirow in Oz
@Ian on the Hill, Elizabeth disagrees with you. She’s the one whose name, among other information, is clearly readable on her broken gravestone. But nice try…
I based it on walking around and looking at those stones many times. There were/are words that could be made out (or half deciphered) here and there, but for the most part they were scrubbed clean by time.
Ian is correct. There’s only one stone with legible writing – Elizabeth’s. Yes, the destruction was pointless and stupid, the area’s changed from a resonant, evocative one to a bland garden, but in terms of historic interest it has to be said those stones are not crucial, and apart from Elizabeth they didn’t relate to identifiiable people, being in an entirely different location from that of the graves.
We lose far more important bits of Greenwich heritage all the time – for instance the Rotunda in Woolwich, which is unloved and in peril, or even that lovely wooden waiting room, used by generations of people at Greenwich Pier, which has been replaced by a Frankie and Benny’s fastfood outlet. It’s the council staff responsible for this who should be imprisoned, I reckon, not some wellmeaning but idiotic chairman (who should admittedly resign).
Idiots!
Where does it say in my post that I am worshiping a tomb stone? I merely stated that while the names are on the stone is a great historical value it reminds us to pray for the dead. Read your bible if you have one and see where it says to pray for the dead. May God bless you and your ancestors and may He give them life everlasting. Ü
St. Alphages church in at least the 18th Century was of mystery as to its Religion.Samuel Enderby II who started the Whaling in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and an executor of James Cook who lived in Mile End Road, North London, whilst Samuel lived in his house in Earle St. North London, a house he had owned all the time he leased houses in Greenwich/ Blackheath from the Morden College, a house he signed his will in so therefore a good chance he died there were both transported to St Alphages to be buried, Sam inside the church with his wife. Samuel left money in his will to Presbyterian personnell at Salters Hall in Bread Street, London, the street where Gov. Phillips was born and to Personell in Worthing. Gravestones may have assisted in removing the mystery.
Having sifted through the comments above, I am left a little confused about the exact status of the churchyard/park.
“it is deconsecrated” occurs several time
“the stones were moved, but the bones are still there”
If it has merely been placed in the care of the local authority for maintenance as pubic open space, or “made over” to them for the same purpose (the various Burial Acts enable local authorities to to take over the care of closed churchyards) then, unless the bodies have been exhumed and re-interred elsehere/cremated and the site has been formally de-consecrated by the relevant ecclesiastical authorities then it remains subject to the Faculty Jurisdiction of the Chancellor of the Diocese of Southwark. No work can be carried out without a Faculty granted by the Chancellor, as Lambeth Council found out to their cost a few years ago in the case of West Norwood cemetery – see
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/cemetery/graveaboutcemeterydatabase.aspx
Regards,
John U.K.
I meant to have added – Can anyone clarify the exact status of the churchyard??
John U.K.
Appalling…have these people no sense at all??
Each headstone was bought by someone. The destroyer could be bankrupted recompensing with inflation and antique value taken into account.
There has still been no further statement on the precise facts surrounding this destruction. It seems as if the ‘Friends’ are hoping it will all blow over so they can continue as they were before.
I can only hope that behind the scenes the council are still investigating this matter fully and some sort of report/statement from them shall be forthcoming.
In the meantime, I saw this Australian news story which might be of topical interest:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-28/st-johns-grave-vandal-jailed/3605828?section=act
I have read many times of drunken vandals destroying monuments in cemeteries around the world. This was done by a group of “FRIENDS” ordered to destroy the headstones and monuments. To me there is no difference.
If I had been a “friend” in that society I would have walked away from the planed destruction. They weren’t soldiers obeying orders. They were people like you and me.
I just don’t understand the rhyme nor reason behind it.
There was a question about this at last week’s meeting of the Greenwich Council. Councillor John Fahy’s reply included the frollowing action plan:
1. A meeting with the Friends Group where the agenda will focus on what needs to be done in responding to the implications of the instructions given to remove the Headstone.
2. A further meeting of the St Alfege’s Parks committee (sic) with senior officers attending to agree next steps.
3. Consideration of options including a rockery or a more formal footpath using the broken stones as a memorial heritage path leading to a communal garden.
4. Partnership working will be taking place with local historians to receive advice on the memorial heritage garden using the headstone remains.
5. Consultation will be undertaken with other conservation bodies, including English Heritage, the Georgian Group, the Mausolea and Monuments Trust and SAVE Britain’s Heritage about the proposed plans for the memorial garden.
Thank you for this interesting update Paul. It is a relief to know that the Council is indeed still investigating this matter. Though I wonder why it has taken so long to arrange a meeting with the Friends? Are the Friends dragging their heels, perhaps?
A meeting? When will criminal charges for vandalism be filed?
Commenters who subscribed to this post by email may be interested to see Greenwich.co.uk’s latest post on the subject:
http://www.greenwich.co.uk/news/06485-friends-banned-from-working-in-st-alfege-park/
I have now been officially informed that Greenwich Council has dissolved the Friends of St Alfege Park with immediate effect. They have been notified of this decision by the council in writing and will no longer have any association with the park at all.
In my opinion it is not a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater (as Mr Delap will believe), but more a case of throwing away once-ripe fruit that has become mouldy and repugnant.
The Council’s priority is now to establish the turn of events and put right what they can. Following this being achieved, a future meeting will be called to create a new, replacement (and less reckless) group to help maintain the park.
When this meeting is called I shall be attending. I hope that all those who have expressed an interest in this heritage area of Greenwich will, if able, lend their support.
To those that have been following the story, the latest web articles on this site can be found below:
http://www.greenwich.co.uk/news/06598friends-of-st-alfege-park-to-consider-future-at-special-meeting/
http://www.greenwich.co.uk/news/06745-st-alfege-park-friends-hope-for-reprieve/