Reading Cemetery

This week for my 101st post I am going back to what the blog began as, one about graves. Taphophilia is something I find interesting in that I visit a lot of churchyards and lately I had the chance to visit Old Reading Cemetery at Cemetery Junction. The cemetery sits between two roads, the London road and the Wokingham road and covers 11. 5 acres.The place opened in 1843 and seemed to closed for burials in 1970 though some burials still take plce of families who own plots there.. It was aplace that was on my list for a while. There are over 18000 graves on the site and 205 war graves of which I took photos of around 100 I came across.

This is the gatehouse to the cemetery which is a listed building and though no doubt once was used for administration it is now used by the police as a neighbourhood station. There were once two chapels on the site but they have since been demolished.

This is the fist view you get of the cemetery as you go through the gatehouse

One of the wargraves with the gatehouse in the background

A lot of the place gets covered in undergrowth, no wonder Muntjac Deer live in the place

Graves of all types

Most in good condition

Some being covered in ivy

Others stand on their own

Some broken

This one stood out to me

The angels either side looks impressive

Nearby this grave was covered in ivy which had died, no doubt it looked like tree when alive

The cross may well have looked like this memorial on the left. On noticing this unusual cylindrical memorial I turned and was looking at a Muntjac before I could take a photo he decided to leave