Brookwood Cemetery 13th July
Posted on Thursday 17 July 2008 by Marion Houghton
I think I can say with confidence that this is and will be the only Central London Section ride in the UK where all the riders were given a postcard sized holy icon as a souvenir - how? read on …
Seven of us (3 gentlemen and 4 ladies for Michael’s gender attendance records) set out from Weybridge to visit the largest cemetery in Europe on a glorious summer’s day last Sunday. After only two miles we took a cappuccino in Addlestone to brace ourselves for the gentle rigours of a morning on towpaths, beside the silent lilypadded waters of the Basingstoke Canal, the only incident being an angry swan (defending its nest of cygnets) blocking the path.
Once off the 10 mile towpath stretch, we headed straight for an early lunch in the garden of a nice-but-pricey (this being stockbroker Surrey) gastro pub in Pirbright. Now for the cemetery, a magnificent “Necropolis” in a huge area of green open space near Woking, once with its own dedicated railway station and branch line. Starting in the Southern section we visited the Orthodox Church run by the 4 monks of the St Edward Brotherhood who are charged with looking after the shrine containing the bones of St Edward the Martyr, an early English king who was murdered in his teens. Inside the church was dim and packed with icons and candles, there were no pews as the services (3 a day and the Sunday service attended by 60 or 70) are conducted with the congregation standing. After a talk from one of the monks , we signed the visitors book and clutching our iconic postcards, we were on our bikes again to the Northern Section across the road.
Here we visited the mass graves of the dead of three civilian aircraft crashes in the 50s and 60s, then it was off the track and into the undergrowth to find the memorial to 3 women hanged at Holloway Prison and reburied here. We read of the tragic Edith Thompson, wrongly convicted of and hanged for her part in the murder of her husband but effectively, it seems, wickedly punished for simply being an adulterer. On a lighter note, the next stop was the grave of the Duchess of Argyle who was the main player in a sensational divorce case involving a photo of a “headless man”- Google it, its not suitable for discussion here! Then it was on to the sections containing graves of Turkish Airmen, Zoroastrian, Italian Catholics and many others. Finally we left via the Military Section with the familiar serried ranks of immaculately maintained stones and manicured lawns.
The rest of the ride passed uneventfully and mainly on road via Worplesdon, Jacobs Well and Send. A short towpath section along the Wey navigation led to a sighting of a barn owl hunting in the fields on the opposite bank and Martin had a minor “mechanical” when his bike became entangled with abandoned fishing line.
We were back at Weybridge by 5.30 with 38 miles behind us and an icon to contemplate on the train journey home. Take a look at www.brookwoodcemetery.com for more information on this truly unique destination.