From The Western Times of 13th April 1844:
"ST SIDWELL'S. - We are happy to hear that the Parish of St, Sidwell's, are at last about to settle with the Dean and Chapter, the purchase of a piece of ground behind the Church, to increase the burying ground,
"This extension has long been imperatively called for. The present yard, from its crowded state, is not only a disgrace to the parish, but a nuisance to the city. Its crowded graves frequently led to the most revolting exposure of the half decomposed remains of the hapless tenants of the yard, and threatened to overwhelm the city with a pestilence, according to the statement of bodies of local knowledge and publically proclaimed before the Commissioners of Improvement."
St. Sidwell's churchyard , it might be argued, is still a disgrace to the parish and the city but, at least, there are, as far as I know, no half decomposed remains to revolt the passer-by.
There is a true whiff of Victorian Gothic about this description of the churchyard, don't you think?
The citizens of Exeter feared pestilence like the plague! (joke!) They well remembered the horrors of the cholera epidemic of 1832 and the smallpox of 1837 and yet there were clearly dramatic examples of uncleanliness at St. Sidwell's and no doubt elsewhere.
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