Jim and Kim's Travels: Cemetery Exploring in Carshalton, UK

We were off again. Another day, another train. Pam and Trevor went to experience the London Eye, and we were heading to Carshalton, about an hour south of London, to see if we could find my grandmother's grave. I had emailed the church a few months before we left Canada to see if they had any record of her, but had not received a response. Cousin Ann called them and they did call back and said they would look for her. We decided while we were here we should go and look, even if we hadn't heard from them. How hard could it be?

Transportation in England is easy to figure out. Not cheap, but easy.

Lots of graffiti...

It appears we might have been at the back of the train...

We've arrived! I was excited and hoping we could find my grandmother's grave. She died when my dad was 7 and, when his father died in WWII, he became an orphan at the age of 12.

The station looked much like others we have seen. You have to go through a tunnel under the tracks to take the train for the return journey.

A lovely old railway station...

Yikes! It was downhill so you knew what was coming on the return walk...

The population of Carshalton is around 30,000. We had heard it pronounced CAR-shal-ton and also Car-SHAL-ton, like a big sneeze in the middle. I went back and forth between the two.

With our trusty Google map in hand, we headed off to find the church.

Past The Sun...a free house is a pub that is owned independently of the breweries that supply it.

The Sun first opened in 1866 and was restored to its original glory in 2009.

Lovely park area...

So much history here...Grove Park was originally part of a manor house in medieval times and would have been mostly meadows.

It was a pleasure to walk through...

And nice that they have kept some of it as a meadow...

Now that's a tiny door!

This bridge was constructed in the 18th century as part of a mansion, except the mansion was never built.

Oooh...our first glimpse of our destination, All Saints Church.

A church has stood at this site since Norman times; the current church contains 12th century work.

Definitely looking old...

We walked around the church hoping to find the office with someone in it.

Long about now, I was realizing how old the cemetery was and how many graves there might be.

Still looking for the door, we wandered by this gate...

And found the office door right around this corner. Luckily, the assistant rector was coming out and we explained who we were. You could tell he was rushing off to somewhere and wasn't particularly helpful. He said "I'll take you to the area where I think she might be." Well, alrighty then...

He stopped to point out this etching, and I believe there was a story, but with his accent and us rushing to keep up with him, it was lost in translation.

And now my "how hard could it be?" was being answered. This was going to be hard.

There were graves with headstones and others like the one behind the broken statue. These graves were simply borders with names on the end or on the side. Oh dear...

With a wave at this general area where people from the 1930s to 1950s were buried, our church person was off and we were left staring at each other...and the massive task ahead. There are supposedly 8000 people buried here with only 6000 recorded.

So we split up and just started looking...

There is clearly no money for the upkeep of the cemetery...

Jim gamely jumping in...

I had my head down staring at the sides of the borders on the graves when I ran into this fox. Blech! I was starting to wonder if they have ticks in the UK, because if they did, we were going to be in prime territory.

Some of the graves have sunk into the ground. Many of the people "went to sleep." It was pretty fascinating.

This really was like a needle in haystack. In my mind I was saying "Come on, Emma. Show yourself." So far, she wasn't buying.

A lady walking her dog asked if we were looking for someone or just photographing the cemetery. Apparently, lots of people come to do that.

I was tempted to brush the needles and debris from this fallen headstone, but wasn't sure what I would stir up, so I left it as is.

After about an hour, we met up and debated our next plan of action. We decided to continue with the area we were in. Jim was hitting some people in the 1930s. I was getting a mishmash of everything.

A tree you can see through...in the years to come it will probably fall and add to the decay of the cemetery.

There were thistles and this vine that looked sort of like mistletoe. If this grave had a border, it was now beneath the ground.

By now, I was more depressed about the state of the cemetery and how sad it is. I cannot imagine the cost of keeping this up.

This headstone will soon be devoured by the ivy and you won't know it was ever there.

After another hour of looking, we decided this task was bigger than the two of us. We slowly made our way back towards the church.

With a last look and a hope that Emma knew we had come to pay our respects, we called it quits and went next door...to the pub.

This was bright and cheery after the gloominess of the cemetery!

Jim earned his beer! I decided to go for my favourite Strongbow, only to be greeted by a red one. Grrr! Don't mess with my original Strongbow. It was sweet but I didn't have any trouble drinking it.

I'm sure we were supposed to put the spoon somewhere noticeable, but we were pretty much brain dead.

I can still taste how yummy this was!

After lunch, we wandered up the street...

Lots of pubs...I can't say we had a bad meal in any of the pubs we visited.

Lots of fancy cars...I think people in the lower wage brackets walk or take public transit, because it seemed like the majority of cars we saw here and around our lodgings in Tower Hill were all high-end.

We headed back through the park...this momma was taking a rest from her babies, but still keeping a watchful eye on them.

Neat old fence...

Truly a lovely place to walk...

This gives you a better idea of how huge the church is...

With a last look and a thought sent to Emma and Dad, we were on our way back to the railway station.

By now, lots of people were out enjoying the surroundings...

These happy guys paddled by...

And this is interesting to know...

Magnificent trees...

A egret (I believe) surveying his surroundings...

More trees...

We came to the end of the park...

And headed back along the street...

I hadn't seen many cats, but clearly this lady is a cat lover!

And time to start the walk up the hill...it didn't look too bad.

Until you saw it from this angle...hills are not Jim's friends.

The thing about stopping frequently on the hill is that you see things you'd normally pass by. This looked pretty to me with the old post and the ivy creeping along...

Whew! Back under the tracks and on the other side waiting for the next train back to London. It actually rained for a few minutes...this was the only rain we saw in the 10 days we were in London. Now that is amazing!

"Mind the gap..." How many times do you hear that in London. Many!

We sat back and relaxed on the train, disappointed that we couldn't find Emma, but knowing we had done all we could in the short time we had.

Tomorrow, we're heading to Brighton for the day...

Update: Cousin Ann emailed to say the church contacted her and they found Emma! I am so excited! The lady has offered to take some photos for us. To be continued...

And here she is! There is no name on the border, so we would never have found her no matter how long we looked.