This article was produced by the students of Southampton University in May 2007. The students' resources included Southampton Old Cemetery and SCC Museums Service.
DEATH IN VICTORIAN SOUTHAMPTON
The poet James Shirley once suggested that death was a leveller, the conclusive chapter in life, in which the slate is wiped clean, when differences in social class or religion no longer prevailed.
With this in mind, it was of great fascination to delve further into the wealth of historical heritage available in Southampton, to respond to the somewhat morbid question of how the Victorian people of Southampton experienced death. Within modern society, an expected reaction to the subject of death is to remain silent, as death is seen as a taboo subject, seldom discussed.
In the Victorian age, however, death was arguably embraced rather than feared. In comparison to today's secular society, Victorians held stronger convictions to the teachings of the Bible - the doctrine of the eternal soul and an eventual bodily resurrection.
In the Victorian period, the working classes had an extremely short life expectancy, caused by insanitary living conditions, where the spread of disease was rife. The construction of the docks and Southampton's rapid urbanisation ensured that the working-class remained entrapped in the town's overpopulated and unsanitary streets, aiding the spread of the cholera epidemic of 1849. The combination of the high mortality rates and an increased population resulted in the horrific overcrowding of many of Southampton's burial grounds. The raised landscape of St Mary's Church near the city centre still shows evidence as to how the corpses were carelessly disposed of in piles up to 14 feet high.
An iron grave marker in the Old Cemetery Brannon's view of St Mary's churchyard
With the reality of high mortality rates, many paupers put money aside to ensure that they could afford to fund their own funeral, thus avoiding the indignity of a parish workhouse funded funeral. For a larger proportion of the working class a simple iron or wooden cross was all that could be afforded, both of which are evident at Southampton's Old Cemetery. In cases of extreme poverty, the identities of the deceased were withheld and no headstones were present.
In stark contrast to the experiences of the poor, the upper classes spared no expense when designing the funeral that they desired. The funeral would consist of a grand procession led by a horse drawn hearse and one would often pay to have extra mourners present. The pompous Victorian upper class funeral successfully created quite a spectacle, a desire that the middle classes endeavoured to imitate, but barely had the means to.
Following the deaths of their husbands, widows would remain in a state of mourning up to two years, where they were expected to wear suitable black attire. Arguably, Queen Victoria was the archetypal image of the mourning widow as she remained isolated in a state of mourning for forty years after the death of her beloved Albert.
courtesy SCC Museums Service
In the Southampton City Council Museum collection there are many examples of mourning jewellery as worn by the upper classes. These included jet black jewellery and creative examples of braided hair jewellery which acted as souvenirs of the deceased.
courtesy SCC Museums Service
The poorer classes could not afford to take part in this commercialized notion of death, although they continuously desired to replicate the mourning etiquette of their social superiors. As such, during times of hardship they would often dye their own clothes black to create a similar effect.
In reverting back to James Shirley's claim that death was a leveller, evidence would suggest that this was an inaccurate portrayal of the Victorian experience of death, as differences clearly remained. As such, in Southampton and across the nation, social divides continued to play a vital role in determining the place of burial, the type of funeral and the type of mourning one would experience.
see also School of Humanities, University of Southampton web http://www.history.soton.ac.uk/group5.htm
click to see a video prepared by the university students
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