The Grave of Robert Buchanan

A few more photos

2003

Taking my life in my hands, I climb over the railings to clear the foliage away from the grave.

Me again, doing the gardening - I’ve still got that shirt.

The monument - looking to the right.

The monument - looking to the left. No sign of the homeless guy living under the hedge in 2011.

2011

Not a mistake - Tony sent me this photo of the monument, all cleaned up and ready for the installation of Buchanan’s head. Note the absence of railings and the new entrance in the wall.
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Black cat in a graveyard - very Edgar Allan Poe.

Scary!

Unveiled! And the new bust gets the thumbs up from Canon Stephen Burdett.

The Mayor of Southend and the Sculptor, pinstripe suit and bloke taking photograph.

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Base of the monument with the ‘quotation’ from Macbeth. Click the picture to find it.

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Lisa Hawker, who sculpted the new bust of Robert Buchanan, sent me a few photos of the clay original before it was cast in bronze.

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Man puzzling over inscription, Robert Buchanan and me.

The main information board for the churchyard - click to read it.

The memorial to the author, Warwick Deeping - click for larger image.

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Before we left Southend I went in search of Buchanan’s residences in the town. Hamlet Court, I knew, had been demolished years ago, but I wanted to find 2, Devereux Terrace (where Buchanan was living when his wife died in 1881) and Byculla House. I couldn’t find a Devereux Terrace, but there was a Devereux Road. However there was no No. 2 and the houses on that side of the road didn’t look Victorian to me (with my great knowledge of architectural styles). Round the corner from Devereux Road was Cliff Town Parade and there I found Byculla House. According to Chapter 23 of the Jay biography:
“After a residence at Hamlet Court which lasted two or three years, the poet removed to a house on the Cliff, which is now known as Byculla House; then, finding that he was plunging deeper and deeper into stage work, he settled down in Maresfield Gardens, South Hampstead, where he lived for many years.”

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And with that, we said goodbye to a very miserable, grey, cold and misty Southend and drove back to sunny Stoke.

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