‘Tho’ lost to sight, to memory dear’: pragmatism, sentimentality and working-class attitudes towards the grave, c.1875-1914

Strange, Julie-Marie

Abstract

This essay explores the significance of the grave within working-class cultures of death and bereavement. Drawing on little-used municipal burial board records from the northwest of England, it analyses a culture of trading in grave space alongside the apparent neglect of grave space in the aftermath of burial. I argue that attitudes towards burial space were informed by pragmatism. This need not conflict, however, with sentiment. Indeed, placing the private grave within a broader context of attitudes towards pauper burial and forms of commemoration outside the cemetery, working-class attitudes towards the grave indicate not so much a culture of ambivalence towards the dead, but, rather a flexible and diverse culture of loss.

Citation

Strange, J.-M. (2003). ‘Tho’ lost to sight, to memory dear’: pragmatism, sentimentality and working-class attitudes towards the grave, c.1875-1914. Mortality, 8(2), 144-159. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357627031000087398

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jun 16, 2008
• Publication Date: 2003-05
• Deposit Date: Jan 24, 2025
• Journal: Mortality
• Print ISSN: 1357-6275
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9885
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 144-159
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1357627031000087398
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3349548