One of Cambridge's best kept secrets is the Ascension Burial Ground. The Mirror newspaper calls it 'Britain's Brainiest Graveyard' but that really fails to capture the beauty and unfailing good taste of this quiet resting place for many of Cambridge's academics and 'alternative thinkers' of the 19th and early 20th century. There are many 'normal' people buried here but also a very high number of scholars. There are several children and grandchildren of Charles Darwin (including Francis Darwin, the botanist, and Frances Cornford, the poet), the Nobel prizewinners John Cockcroft (split the atom) and Max Perutz (structure of haemoglobin) and most famously the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. The small chapel is now home to a workshop for the letter artist Eric Marland - he trained in Cambridge under David Kindersley and fine examples of their beautiful lettering can be seen in the graveyard. They are both worth looking up if you like that sort of thing.
PS I haven't spent hard earned money on The Mirror - found the quote on t'internet!
This is fascinating, Judith. Some lovely shots in the collage, you've really captured the atmosphere of the graveyard and the note below adds lots of interest to read. Great. I keep meaning to visit Cambridge again as I've always liked the area.
a lovely collage - I really didn't know anything about this place even though it is so close - and I must drive past it every few weeks on my way to the hen-food shop on Huntingdon Rd - I did a little search for the story, and found the even more impressive strap-line "coffins for boffins"!
Very interesting and a great collection of photos. I tried to do some grave yard photos the other day and was stuck for some reason, I just couldn't shoot them! Glad you didn't spend any money on red top tabloids LOL
@araminta I find it's often useful to have a newspaper to kneel on!! I've tried this graveyard before and the pics were rubbish - bit of sun through the trees helped a lot today. Wish I knew how to do some of the fab processing that you see on graveyard pics on here though.
I love graveyards and I agree they can be quite hard to shoot. Your collage worked out great though, really gives you a feel for the place. You've inspired me to go to one particularly beautiful graveyard in my town one of these days :)
Lovely collage and shots. Thanks for the info, it is very interesting. Like Helene and her wonderful Paris shots, I want to go to Cambridge now as well.
Just beautiful, can never quite understand why anyone would not want to live near a grave yard, nice quiet neighbours and somewhere v peaceful to go to!
