FASCINATING STORIES BACK FROM THE GRAVE

By Richard Wright - Friday, July 4, 2008

Janette Gregson, pictured at Ryde Cemetery, has had inquiries from all over the world. Picture by Robin Crossley.

WIGHT LIVINGTHE rich seam of stories unearthed from beyond the grave by a tiny band of volunteers has hardly scratched the surface of Ryde Cemetery.
The nattily named Ryde Social Heritage Group has done great stuff, cataloguing, charting and putting down on paper and website all those nuggets of history which fade with age and wither through death.
The work of the group, rooting around in the 12-acre cemetery for six years now, was funded by £25,000 in one of the better grants doled out by the Heritage Lottery Fund. That led to a further tranche of £500,000 to restore the cemetery and improve what is also an important nature habitat in the centre of town.
To mark completion of the early bit of sleuthing out the secrets of the cadavers beneath their feet, the group has brought out a book, Ryde’s Heritage — Our Town, Your Histories, and a cracking good read it is, too.
Valuably, it charts the history of Ryde Cemetery, the growth of Ryde into the town we have today, its churches, education, brewers, transport, maritime history and the natural history of the burial ground.
But it is the people and what they got up to in their lives and, indeed, how they met their maker, that make it an invaluable and intriguing read.
There’s the brewing family Sweetman and the story of how their local empire frothed, fermented and drained away and the Lake clan and their Duffetts-Lion Brewery.
Now all that remains of their dominion, in name, is the Lake Superior pub in Haylands.
The Lakes rest in the cemetery and so, too, does Joseph Exton.
He died, aged 66, and his Lamb Brewery passed on, too. Even Brunswick Street is history. It’s now Station Street.
Then there’s the Gem Inn, in Hill Street.
James Stallard was the landlord of an establishment more commonly known as the Undertaker’s Arms and Stallard had to make but a short journey to his West Street plot after he died.
There was dirty dealing before he met a sticky end.
A few days before his 75th birthday, “churlish” Stallard took a young bride and the union, perhaps predictably, was not a happy one.
Whether the irascible licensee was drunk or mad when he threw his toy-girl out of a window is not known.
When he died a few days later, on June 7, 1872, his family blamed the woman but the inquest concluded apoplexy.
Many of his photographs may have faded now but postcard producer Frederick Broderick gets a mention, recording a 1906 stagecoach — the Edwardians captured forever in their finery. A grand day out indeed.
Life and times move on. The owners of Ryde’s first motor coach company, Harry Paul and his son, young Harry, took up the transport reins, horsepower replacing horses.
There’s the Selina lifeboat disaster and the pomp and ceremony of the town honouring its dead heroes.
There is also the lesser-known John Gawn, a man who held two children in his muscular arms, battling the strong tide of Scratchell’s Bay.
They were saved at their last gasps but Gawn perished.
There’s a wealth of human tales that haven’t made it into the book. They have flooded in from around the globe through the wonder of the worldwide web.
Janette Gregson is well placed to research the cemetery, living in a lodge that was once part of it and as group linchpin played a major role in producing the book.
She’s had contact from all over the world, Australia and America mostly, but New Zealand, Canada, Denmark and South Africa.
Stuart Grant got in touch from Malawi.
It was in 2005 he wanted to know about his grandfather, George Neston Grant. Two years later, when the grave inscription was transcribed, he got his answer.
His reply to Janette: “I like to believe I’m an old cynic (70 and aware that the Grim Reaper is steadily approaching) but I downloaded the pictures of the grave and the two narratives and it brought a lump to the throat and some wateriness around the eyes.”
He reminisced that his grandmum and dad used to work in the Nag’s Head in Ryde, his nan liking a nip of whisky “Just to steady my hand, boy...”
But she savoured, even more, the container of cold tea she secreted beneath the bar, topping up her glass with it if she was bought a “nip” and pocketing the cash.
Probably the most exotically named “resident” of the graveyard is one Baron Pasquale Sceberras Trigona, KCMG, 14th Barone di Montagna di Marzo, of Sicily, the last Lord Lieutenant of Malta (1793-1869). He rests in the Catholic quarter, among the less than half the graves that have so far been transcribed.
Then, of course, there’s all the other graveyards in town.
Proof that there is a lifetime’s work, after death.

• The first of a series of activity days to encourage volunteering is on Sunday, between 11am and 4pm as part of Ryde Festival of Arts Week. Restoration plans, historic photographs and school project work will be on display.
•The heritage group website is at www.rshg.org.uk
•Ryde’s Heritage — Our Town, Your Histories is printed by Crossprint and priced at £14.

FASCINATING STORIES BACK FROM THE GRAVE

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