Marged, It is an interesting read and generates a number of thoughts. The first one being of how many people in those times were dying, often from diseases much more common in those times than the present day. The cemeteries must have been under tremendous strain at times to accomodate the dead, especially for the many families who couldn't afford a private grave. Secondly, its no mean feat, even in this day and age, to dig a hole 5ftx7ft and 20 to 35ft deep and I feel there's an unmentioned reason as to those dimensions. 5ftx7ft is hole not dissimilar to one dug for a modern burial although not 5ft wide. The attending family may have been blissfully unaware of just how much use a 'single' plot had seen before their funeral. It may have afforded them the apparent luxury of a single plot burial when they couldn't afford one. At upto 35ft deep that's a LOT of weight on the bottom coffins. I'm guessing a coffin might be 14inches deep and in 30ft of hole that'd be 25 of them. I couldn't say if coffin design has changed over the years but if they were similar to modern designs, where even something described as 'solid oak' has a significantly thinner lid and base than its walls (designed for eventual compaction?) then under that kind of force the lower ones would most likely collapse. Maybe it created, at least in the very short term, further additional capacity in one plot as the bottom ones gave way? "Another pit 20ft deep was opened on the 15th March and closed on the 16th April, contained 60 bodies" That's only 4inches per body even if they were piled to the top and not in coffins. "a sixth opened on the 7th April and closed on the 28th April contained 82 bodies, this was 35ft deep" This is very similar. Maybe it was the kindest and most efficient way to accomodate the dead in an overcrowed system prior to cremation becoming legal? Maybe it was profiteering? Pete On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:09:05 -0000, Marged <[email protected]> wrote: > > Inquiry into the burials at St James cemetery and the Necropolis 1857, > gruesome reading on pit burials > On new snippets page > Please support free sites > http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/index.html > Jane > >------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >