Undercliffe. A great walk for Goths.

Undercliffe cemetery in Bradford. Here is Lee looking very small next to the most enormous grave and this one was not even the most over the top in this old Victorian specially designed grave yard.

Goth heaven! if there is such a place it must be here. This is ten minutes from my house. I thought I had died and gone to heaven myself. As you are about to find out...I had a bit of a photo fest and squealed a lot intermingled with "look at this Lee!!!"

Like this one here...Look at this! An Egyptian tomb complete with sphinx.......All of Bradford's great and good are here I take it that this family were great good and very rich. There is no other way to leave this mortal coil. I want one. In fact I want one NOW! Just a guess, but do you think this might be the same family that had the Egyptian style mill in Leeds? I really should have paid more attention to the inscriptions.....though that gives me a whole new reason to go back.

I took along some of my dolls. Is this really naughty and disrespectful? I did wonder as two women were looking and watching as I took these pics. I got wafts of disapproval but nothing was actually said. Any way this doll is a Barbie that I was sent from California. She was in need of a make over so I gave her one..........This is in fact The Illingworth Mausoleum. I just looked it up. They were Mill owners in Bradford. The Egyptian style was a fashion of that period......

Undercliffe cemetery. Listed by English heritage and paid for by the rich of the area....Like Mill owners and lord mayors.....Titus Salt for example, who we met the other week in Saltaire. He helped pay here but has his own church in Saltaire where he is interred.... 

This great big statement cemetery came about because in the 1800's the population in Bradford became much higher due to the textile industry that blossomed here at that time. More people...more deaths and more burials. The existing cemetery's were closed due to spread of disease and insanitary arrangements and this one was designed and built on a hill top over looking Bradford. Bradford Cemetery Company was set up in 1849.

The land was owned by the Hustler family and was farm land with a house here. It was purchased in 1851 by John Horsfall for £3,400.....with money from Bradford Cemetery company. The cemetery was designed and laid out between 1851- 1854. William Gay designed the cemetery and architect John Dale did the planting and building here.....This cost £12,000.

This cemetery is 26 acres of gorgeous Goth Victorian death monuments. As I say a Goth heaven indeed.

Most of the Western area is consecrated for Anglican burials.....The eastern half is set aside for non conformist burials ...as Quakers.....Methodist....Baptist . The Quaker graves are all laid out flat and all the same......I did not find this bit as I was so taken by the big monuments.....And the Northern part is for Non baptised and suicides. I am not baptised....so I guess this is where I would have ended in those days. Not baptised? no! there you see you have learned something else about odd old me. No I am not baptised as a member of any of God's flocks. You would think I was very religious and a church goer? well I do go to a lot of churches but it is because I like them and the stained glass not because I wish to find my salvation.....

Any way it is good to know that the Victorians considered all in this massive design.....as there are also communal graves for paupers on the southern side where as many as thirty coffins would be placed in one grave.......

I have been up sitting in the kitchen writing this blog since just before 4am. The wind is howling and the rain beating at the window glass.The light has just started to appear just after 6am.....I got dressed thinking that I would go out and take some dramatic photos. I just looked out and have decided that it is worth the soaking.

I did nip out this day. I can tell you this it is freezing rain being hurled out there! I have put on the heating and my coat is just steaming a little as it drys out.Was it worth it? well the old guys were not in the boat house drinking tea...that should give you a clue!
Any way were were we? Undercliffe cemetery yesterday......Where I found some stunning death monuments in the rain also...... this angel for example.....

This area is now owned and run by Bradford city council as Undercliffe cemetery charity. We parked just by their office which houses an exhibition of pictures and some history stuff. we were going to look...but felt a bit intimidated...the people were all still alive and we did not feel that sociable after the walk around this vast plot!

So this magnificent city of the dead. This day I have with me my fave Monster high dolls....Frankie Stein. This is possibly really disrespectful but hell I have done it now and the photos are fabulous. It is too late to worry. .....

I have a collection of Monster high dolls. This time of year they are favourites as Halloween and Winter approach. I love Halloween.....you would never guess would you?
Monster high are a "fashion" range of dolls made by Mattel   and features a selection of mythical characters known as Ghouls and Mansters. The characters are often sons and daughters of monsters popularised in fiction and all are students at The Monster high...... Frankie stein is the daughter of Frankenstein!.......

And here she is three versions of the same character.......Frankie is my favourite because she is all scars having been stitched back together from parts "left over" from other projects.....Like me. I am all remade from other parts. I have a lot of interesting surgery scars now.......

The original characters of Monster high were created by Garrett Sander and his twin brother and based on Goth fashion, inspiration from Tim Burton and Lady Gaga (born this way).....

By the time we had reached this part of the grave yard the rain had started to come down hard and a hood was required....the rain drops kept getting on my camera lens...which was not the effect I wanted at all....so a lot of the photos I took were rendered unusable after here......

This tomb was another exclamation! "oh look at this Lee!!!".....This is possibly my fave...though I do like the Egyptian one earlier a lot.

vast parts have been allowed to go back to nature and are covered in brambles.

This is a very special place to be buried. You still can be as there are limited plots available and there are plans to buy more land......if you already have a family plot it is possible to have it all dug up by arrangement so you can join your family for your final resting place.

We parked up by the lodge and thought we could get out Monza dog. As it started to rain and I noted quite a few others around we did not get him out of the car. It only takes some one to appear suddenly from behind something and Monza gets stressed and starts barking. This could be a very quick way to get banned. I would not want that.

Do you know...I had never been here before. It is another of the places I decided to visit this year that I have not been to before. It is now another like Saltaire that I will be returning to. I hope to get here much earlier next time so there are not so many people about!!! well the live ones any way.....

This is an "out take" as I caught Lee in the back ground there.......He looks small! well we all looked very small next to these monuments!

Another "out take" that I only include because it looks very goth dark and wet......

Which is just the way it is. The city of the dead in the rain. A great walk if you like that kind of thing. I do!
"gould!" said Lee as I just read him this and showed him my photos from this morning. Yes we are going to Otley as we usually do on a Friday and yes!! it is still raining hard and the wind pumping.