FRIENDS BEDFORD CEMETERY PAST EVENTS

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11th 2011.
HERITAGE OPEN DAY.
Held at FosterHill Road Cemetery.

The Friends, in association with Bedford Bereavement Service, organised an Open Day as part of the National Heritage Open Day scheme. The burial registers were available to consult for one day only, and there were heritage and natural history walks, led respectively by Richard Wildman and Margaret Carpenter, and by Brian Anderson, from the Friends’ committee.

Refreshments were provided, including a great variety of cakes made by Margaret Carpenter and Sue Pollard, as well as tea and coffee.

An added attraction at this year's Open Day was a very fine display of vintage cars. The Vauxhall Car Collectors’ Club brought along a number of Vauxhall cars and several Austins from other clubs were on display. All the cars were in wonderful condition and a great credit to their owners.

The event was well supported, with about 50 members of the public present, eager to learn more about the history of the Cemetery and to trace relatives’ graves and also view the very fine cars on display.

SATURDAY JUNE 11th 2011.
10th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION LECTURE
Held at Norse Road Cemetery Chapel.

Dr Julian Litten on "Victorian Funerals"

The cost of funerals has not risen in real terms since the 19th century,
Dr Julian Litten told the audience, when he gave the Celebration Lecture,
which was organised by the Friends of Bedford Cemetery for their 10th
Anniversary. Dr Litten, who is recognised as the foremost authority on
the history of funerals, described the three different branches of the
funeral trade: the carpenters, the undertakers and (the most expensive)
the funeral furnishers, who bought in services from the other two and
sold them on to the client at a substantial mark-up, from a pauper’s funeral (often paid for, then as now, by the hospital or the local council) to that of a member of the peerage. He quoted from the writings of the social investigator Edwin Chadwick, and the novels of Charles Dickens, and showed many slides of contemporary illustrations, though the sunny afternoon meant that not all could be fully appreciated.

The President of the Friends of Bedford Cemetery (Foster Hill Road), Richard Wildman, introduced the speaker and welcomed Councillor Mrs Holland, the relevant portfolio holder from Bedford Borough Council. After the lecture, there was a lively question-and-answer session, and then Margaret Carpenter (Hon Treasurer of the Friends) and Sue Pollard (Hon Secretary) served refreshments to the audience in the foyer.

SUNDAY JANUARY 23rd 2011. OPEN DAY AT NORSE ROAD.
Another very successful Open Day at Norse Road. About 60 people,
between 1.00pm and 2.15pm, went on the tours behind the scenes of
the crematorium and most people said how enlightening, reassuring
and worthwhile the visit had been.

This was followed at 3.00pm by an interesting talk entitled.

Mrs Bousfield - Matriarch and Social Reformer
by Bob Ricketts CBE.

Bob's talk about Mrs Bousfield's Diary was accompanied
by many pictures.. He ably bought her to mind, as a strong
minded, enthusiastic Victorian lady, who must still have
been very difficult to live with. I suppose nowadays we
would say she meant well !

The talk was followed by the Friends Annual Tea Party. There were well over a dozen different homemade cakes to sample and almost as many different sorts of homemade biscuits. Every one ate their fill and all went home with 'doggi-bags' to consume at a later date. This afternoon of events were free to all, but people generously gave voluntary donations of almost Ł50. The excess cakes etc was sent to Fulbourn Hospital in Cambridge where staff ate most of it and then donated another Ł50 to the Friends. The small amount of the feast that was left was taken to Jimmy's the Night Shelter for homeless in Cambridge. The cakes etc were provided by The Friends, and they would like to give a special thank you to Sam and Kathy who did the tours and helped with everything else as well.