Accrington Web - It rained!

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Family Fun Day Sat 19th June 2004, St. James' church Accy. In the rain!

Then it came fine, then it rained, then it brightened up, then................

Nice willow...What the forecast for next week.

Some rain, then some sun, then more rain.......probably!

I was hoping for a bit of sunshine.

Hoping to get home 3 or 4 times next week...please Keep me posted.

There are people still buried under there. I am horrified. Have people no respect for the dead at all ?

There is now nothing to indicate where individual graves are apart from the few large monuments. All the other grave stones have been moved to make a pathway round the church. I presume this was approved of the the Church of England and that if anyone had any objections at the time they could have voiced them.

The "stalls" on this fun day were all run by churches. It wasn't a secular event.

It may well be that there are no living relatives of those buried there. What I find more disturbing is that one of the remaining monuments has been vandalised more than once - the one with the opheclide (sp?) on it.

Whilst we are on the subject - what do you read this date of birth as being? It was part of a "Treasure Hunt" quiz for the kids and the date we thought (and still think) it is was marked as wrong.

I read it as ' JUNE 16 1825'

Some of the remaining monuments in that churchyard are listed, though I am not sure what grade.

Whats an 'opheclide'? I'm curious.

Hi, an opheclide is a musical instrument

An opheclide (or however you spell it) is a musical instrument. It's on top of the monument with a sort of cloth draped over it. I always used to wonder what it was when I went past as a child and then a teacher told me. Apparently someone in the grave used to play one.

That date does look like 1825 doesn't it, but if you look again it can also look like 1823. Beneath it there is a 5 which isn't the same shape. I'm now curious to know what the correct date is.

If you look where I've traced over the two numbers you'll maybe see what I mean.

The memorial in St James' Churchyard is to Adam Westwell, a prominent member of the Old Band which used to play in and around Accrington. It reads:

ADAM WESTWELL
Born June 15th, 1823
Died October 4th, 1859
Martha, his wife
Born 21st May, 1823
Died September 15th, 1881
Interred at Great Harwood

This monument was erected by the members and friends of the Accrington Brass Band in affectionate remembrance of ADAM WESTWELL, who for many years was a distinguished opheclide player in the above band. MDCCCLX

A few years ago the "statue" was taken down for safe keeping, eventually cleaned and put back.

Accy History.....More please

Well, you learn something new every day. I had never heard of this instrument before. A bit of research uncovered the following.

"The Opheclide served as a tenor/bass pitched transition instrument between the keyless and keyed Serpents of the 1700s and the valved lower brass instruments of the mid 1800s. The idea came from the keyed bugles first invented in 1817 in the UK. The first Opheclide was patented in 1821 in France and a version was still listed in the French Cousenon catalog of 1910. Essentially it is a tapered tube about 8 feet in length and pitched in C (or sometimes in Bb) with a bell about the size and shape of a alto or baritone horn. They usually have 9 keys placed so the player can open and close a single or combination of large holes in the tubing - using two hands- much like the saxophones of today- but with the air column vibrations coming from the players lips using a euphonium size mouthpiece. Higher (alto) and lower (contrabasse) versions were also made."
http://www.rugs-n-relics.com/brass-p...opheclide.html

Apparently Berlioz' s 'Symphonie Fantastique' has a part for one of these.

I see what you mean about the date inscription. The comparison makes the number clearly a '3' and not a '5'.