St. Mary's Gardens

[Wormella]

My work colleague and I were walking into town while aiding Master Wearn walking on the walls of St. Mary's (as I'm sure countless other 4 year old children have over the years) very clearly there was a fence there once, we assume pulled down for WW2 (but we might be wrong) and there was also clearly some kind of gate leading up to the main entrance because of the way the stone work ends.

I've always been puzzled as to when the graveyard was repurposed and the grave stones moved to the edges - I assume in line with building the guildhall shopping center, but I might be wrong.

Does anyone know of any pictures of St. Mary's with it fence? Or know any of its history that we've guessed wrong?

 

[Lucy]

I am sure the gravestones have been where they are now longer than the building of the Guildhall. I used to be told to watch out and not walk over them when I was about 4...

 

[Gramaisc]

A lot of stuff seems to have been shifted in the early 50s.

c 1950

c 1955

And, undated with the fence.

 

[Gramaisc]

I am sure the gravestones have been where they are now longer than the building of the Guildhall. I used to be told to watch out and not walk over them when I was about 4...

The car park that takes a corner out of the churchyard, accessed from Earl Street, was there before the Guildhall and was public then. I used to park my bike there and come down the steps to Albion Place, which led to St Mary's Grove when it was still a real road.

 

[proactive]

The car park that takes a corner out of the churchyard, accessed from Earl Street, was there before the Guildhall and was public then. I used to park my bike there and come down the steps to Albion Place, which led to St Mary's Grove when it was still a real road.

Used to park my car there to go to college.

 

[Gramaisc]

Used to park my car there to go to college.

I came back there one day to find no sign of my bike, so I popped round to the Police Station (about where the Sky boys have their booth in the Guildhall) and was reporting it stolen when I remembered that it had been full there, so I'd actually parked it on the old Fire Station (where Mill Bank surgery is)...

 

[Wormella]

Wow, it looks so different with the fence up

 

[Gramaisc]

I might have a vague memory of a Newsletter storm over some more of the stones being stood up around the edge during the late 1970s, as a way of increasing the amenity value of what had effectively become a mini-park by that stage. by grassing over a bit more of it - but I can't guarantee that accuracy of that..

But, generally, it has been much as it is for the last forty+ years, I think.

 

[Thehooperman]

The car park that takes a corner out of the churchyard, accessed from Earl Street, was there before the Guildhall and was public then. I used to park my bike there and come down the steps to Albion Place, which led to St Mary's Grove when it was still a real road.

And it used to have a small outdoor market in the late 70s/early 80s.

 

[Sir BoD]

And it used to have a small outdoor market in the late 70s/early 80s.

I remember the quagmire well!

 

[Withnail]

... very clearly there was a fence there once, we assume pulled down for WW2 (but we might be wrong)

My understanding is that was exactly the reason - removed and melted down for the 'war effort' and all that, though i have no corroborating evidence.

The gravestones thing i don't know for certain, but i'm pretty sure it followed soon after.

 

[Sir BoD]

My understanding is that was exactly the reason - removed and melted down for the 'war effort' and all that, though i have no corroborating evidence.

The gravestones thing i don't know for certain, but i'm pretty sure it followed soon after.

If you take a look along other areas, such as behind St Chad's, the walls there have evidence of metal stumps protruding, suggesting there once railings there, too.

 

[Noah]

removed and melted down for the 'war effort' and all that

Or not as the case may be. Largely a Churchillian propaganda effort designed to show that everyone had to make sacrifices. The metal was not that much use. Quantities of the railings were dumped in the sea at the time and more remained in scrap dealers yards well into the 1950s.

 

[Gramaisc]

Or not as the case may be. Largely a Churchillian propaganda effort designed to show that everyone had to make sacrifices. The metal was not that much use. Quantities of the railings were dumped in the sea at the time and more remained in scrap dealers yards well into the 1950s.

A lot of the aluminium saucepans were eventually melted down and made into aluminium saucepans.

Around the town end of Wolverhampton Road you can still see filled in railing sockets in the original walls. The cast iron railings could be just snapped off with a belt of a hammer. Where the remaining stumps are visible, you can often see the jagged end, rather than signs of them being cut.

 

[Noah]

A lot of the aluminium saucepans were eventually melted down and made into aluminium saucepans.

Some didn't get as far as being melted down, they were put into second hand shops so that people could buy them to replace the saucepans they had donated to the war effort.

 

[Gramaisc]

Some didn't get as far as being melted down, they were put into second hand shops so that people could buy them to replace the saucepans they had donated to the war effort.

A lot got squashed to facilitate transport, so weren't saleable.

 

[Withnail]

Isn't that both the 'war effort', and 'and all that'?

Now we live in an era that is entirely lived within inverted commas, it's hard to see a life without them.

 

[Withnail]

Having said that, the gravestone clearout quite clearly happened sometime between 1950 and 1955.

If you hap thine eyes ^above.

TBF, Gents, what subsequently happened to the 'merch' is outwith the time in which it were done.

Sometimes feeling as if you are part of something is as important as the part you play in it. Even if your contribution ultimately counts for nothing.

There are no obvious contemporary parallels to this feeling.

 

[Wormella]

The knock on effect though, unintended of course, is much more open, social spaces in lots of places

 

[Thehooperman]

Makes me wonder why they fenced off graveyards in the first place. It's not like anyone's going to escape is it?