- Examining the heritage and history of Brighton through the lens of its oldest burial ground. Providing a Gazeteer of St Nicholas Gardens, tomb by tomb.
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Mortiquaria
- Corporal Staines – The Musical
- The Return of the Gent
- Francis Robertson and the Death of Kings
- Things fall apart
- Life Before Death and the Final Status Update
- Fanny Ricardo and the Father of Free Trade
- The Girl Soldier, The Poet and the Highwaymans Mother
- We Know Where The Bodies Are Buried
- John Walters – The Man Who Worked Too Hard
- Colonel Trickey and the End Of Time
- Richard Pahl and the Baby Blitz
- Mary Coupland and the Wall of Death
- Hard Times at Brighton – A Matchmans’ Tale
- Edward Colman and the ‘Job for Life’
- Martha Gunn and the Kings Evil
- A & AH Wilds and the Ups and Downs of Life
- Hanover Chapel Vault: Enough to Wake the Dead
- The Lady Eldona At Her Tower
- A Life Too Full To Fit – Sake Dean Mahomet
- Coded Mortiquaria
- Hilbers the Blood Royal Homeopath
- Laurentia Dorothea and the penniless portrait painter
- From revolution to nobility – the Baronesses Erskine
- Within the Vaults – Outlaws and Others
- Henry Smithers: Our most recent deceased.
- James Justinian Morier and the Adventures of Hajji Baba
- Sir Matthew Tierney: ‘The Bloody Baron of Brighthelmstone’
- Ghosts of the stones: if not the bones
- How to Empty a Graveyard
- How to Fill a Graveyard
- Smoaker Miles: Phantasmagoria, Swimming with Dr Johnson and other stories
- Stanley Stokes and the Lynch Mob – East Street 1836
- Captain Custard and the Northern Extension
- Lord Byron, Class War and the price of a Decent Send Off
- Buried ‘neath the snow
- Sir Richard Phillips and the skull of Cardinal Wolsey
- The Deathly Pyramid
- ‘The Log of a Jack Tar’; James Choyce 1777 – 1836
- John Rowles and the Battle of Tar Tub
- The Honest Hairdresser
- Conversation with the dead
- Graveyard Hauntings
- A Rest Garden Factuary
- Into the Labyrinth
- The Double Death of Anna Maria Crouch
- Mr Weiss and his Instrument of Certain Death
- Corporal Staines
- Martin Archer Shee (1789 – 1850)
- Funerary Violin and the Forgotten Vault
- Historical disorder
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Category Archives: Missing Monuments
Corporal Staines – The Musical
A soldier returned injured from war, unable to get work and settle into civilian life, makes for himself a home an a bit of wasteland next to the local graveyard, and ekes out a living dependent upon the kindness of … Continue reading
Posted in Churchyard, Missing Monuments, Naval, Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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Richard Pahl and the Baby Blitz
TUESDAY APRIL 19 1944 THE last attack of the Baby Blitz, a renewed offensive against London in the spring of 1944, occurred on this particular night. Taking part was twenty four year old Oberleutnant Richard Pahl in a Messerschmitt 410A-1 … Continue reading
Posted in Churchyard, German, Military, Missing Monuments, St Nicholas
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Mary Coupland and the Wall of Death
In November 1800, 19 year old Mary Coupland was on her way along Church Street heading to St Nicholas Church where she was due to perform bridesmaid duties at a wedding. Sadly a wall near the old stables fell upon … Continue reading
Posted in Churchyard, Missing Monuments, St Nicholas
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Hard Times at Brighton – A Matchmans’ Tale
Born in 1756, John Standing commenced working life as a bricklayer in his native Hurstpierpoint. Misfortune struck in his 30’s when he fell from a scaffold, severely injuring his spine. His thumb was also broken and reversed and he lost … Continue reading
Posted in Churchyard, Missing Monuments, St Nicholas
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Edward Colman and the ‘Job for Life’
Edward Colman held the post of Serjeant at Arms at the House of Commons from 1775 to 1805. Before getting this position he had also been Clerk of the Robes and Wardrobes and Usher of the Privy Chamber, but Serjeant … Continue reading
Posted in Churchyard, Military, Missing Monuments, St Nicholas
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Within the Vaults – Outlaws and Others
The Rest Garden is dominated by the series of raised vaults which were designed by Amon Henry Wilds as a part of his initial layout. The inscriptions were recorded by the council in the late 1940’s as part of the … Continue reading
Posted in Doctor, Missing Monuments, Rest Garden, Royal connection, St Nicholas
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Ghosts of the stones: if not the bones
Of course, when the monuments – the box tombs, the chest tombs, the headstones, the foot stones, the obelisks, the table tombs, the grave rails, the kerbs and other stonework items of memorial – were cleared, the workers only scratched … Continue reading
Posted in Missing Monuments, Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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How to Empty a Graveyard
Between 1949 and 1951, all three burial grounds were cleared by the council. Some monument pieces were placed around the perimiter of the site, but most were removed completely. The photographs below illustrate the scale of change; the first was … Continue reading
Smoaker Miles: Phantasmagoria, Swimming with Dr Johnson and other stories
John ‘Smoaker’ Miles (1721-94) In Georgian Brighton, sea bathing was a highly regulated affair, with men and women separated to different times and locations and to protect modesty further, compelled to use bathing machines. These were wooden structures where bathers … Continue reading
Stanley Stokes and the Lynch Mob – East Street 1836
Stanley Stokes, a legal clerk from London, made frequent short trips to Brighton, always lodging in the same boarding house at 64 Ship Street. During his final visit (Saturday May 21st 1836) he was accused of making ‘improper approaches’ to … Continue reading
Posted in Missing Monuments, St Nicholas
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The Brighton Mortiquarian 