Highgate Cemetery

admin sinfulldude · Highgate Cemetery

(was written and posted by madmart former forum's ADMIN )

A Brief History of Highgate

When burial conditions in London became intolerable in the early 19th Century, Parliament authorised the creation of seven private Cemeteries within the periphery of inner London. Of these Highgate was opened in 1839 (the West Cemetery) and extended in 1854 (the East Cemetery).

In 1975 it had ceased to be financially viable and the owners closed down the West Cemetery, keeping the newer, East Cemetery, open for the time being. The main buildings had become dilapidated and the landscape choked with brambles and self sown sycamores. Motivated by the Highgate Society, the Friends of Highgate Cemetery was formed to do what it could, though this was little more than checking the unwanted vegetation and it was not until 1981 when the freehold of both parts of the Cemetery was acquired that real progress was possible. The Friends of Highgate Cemetery (FOHC) became entirely responsible for the management of the Cemetery and thanks to five years assistance form the Manpower Services Commission, to over fifteen years of generous financial support and ready help from English Heritage, and in particular to FOHC subscribing members and to on-site working volunteers who in this period saved many hundreds of thousands of pounds by doing work that otherwise would have had to be paid for, brought about the position to day when:
All major buildings and several memorials have been conserved or restored.
The Cemetery is listed by English Heritage as of "outstanding historical and architectural interest"
The landscape has been so developed that it is now listed as a Grade II* Park

Ghosts

On Halloween, 1968, a North London cemetery (probably Highgate) was attacked by satanists who not only smashed open coffins but impaled the body of a newly buried woman upon an iron spear. Another coffin was upturned and decorated with a black cross. In March 1969, a charred pigs head (the pig is apparently a symbol of satan),was found on the altar cross of the parish church at Stanstead, Essex and in 1970 several tombs in the old part of Highgate Cemetery were ripped open, and the corpses removed for black magic rites. The body of a woman was later found in a half-burned state by her damaged grave. More recently, many voodoo symbols were found inscribed on the walls of several larger tombs in the cemetary.
Its reported that the ghost of the woman still walks the cemetery, along with other dead upet souls.