Why bury at crossroads

Ancient cultures would often leave garbage and other unclean materials at crossroads. Burying the bodies of executed criminals at crossroads was also common, probably also for the practical reason that it would send a vivid message to any travelers on the road and make them rethink any nefarious doings they might be planning. Crossroads burials continued straight through the medieval and early modern periods into the 19 th century.

The last known crossroads burial occurred in June Abel Griffiths was a 22 year old law student who killed himself after murdering his father. He was buried at a crossroads in the traditional manner. While suicide was viewed more sympathetically at that time, suicides were still buried on the north side of churchyards, with unbaptized infants, the excommunicated and executed criminals.

Suicide was a criminal act in England right up until the Suicide Act of Society as a whole has come a long way when it comes to attitudes toward suicide, although there is still a lot of progress to be made. The graves of those poor souls who succumbed to suicide so many years ago still dot the English countryside, silent reminders of the superstitious past.

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Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Skip to content. Pools, crossroads, stiles, all sorts! I love these folk tales and quirky facts. The idea of crossroads as a liminal place is new to me, but it does make so much sense.

I always put it down to being on the boundaries of communities and often in no mans land, but they are indeed rather liminal.

Yeah, the slightly less superstitious reason for suicides being buried at crossroads was because the land was cheaper since it was often a parish boundary!

Great post. I live overlooking a crossroads on The Downs in Bristol. One large tree of the many trees around the Roundabout always has its trunk painted white. The roundabout is actually called Whitetree Roundabout and my house, Whitetree Lodge! Some people say students paint it, or the council.

Some say it happened pre streetlights to show people the way into Bristol. So who does it and why??? Fascinating post, thanks! It is also given that name in 19th century maps. There are local legends that the crossroads is haunted, although I have walked and driven through the crossroads countless times and have never experienced anything there myself! I just had a look on British Newspaper Archives and found this from a newspaper in — hope it helps! Subscribe to her newsletter for more articles and stories!

This street connects two other streets, so […]. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Icons by Icon8. Get your fabulous folklore fix on your favourite podcast app! Find it here or subscribe on these platforms or your app of choice! Folklore blogger and host of the Fabulous Folklore podcast. Writer of dark fantasy novellas, Gothic short stories and the occasional weird Western.

Once described as a cross between Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Working on a PhD about haunted house films! Find out when new posts go live. I'll also send you my guide to protecting your home using folklore! Apparently The crossroads provides an eerie backdrop to these tales. But why so eerie? The execution of the idle apprentice at Tyburn. Engraving by T. Cook, , after W. Hogarth, Thanks to Wellcome Trust. Enjoyed this post? There was an error submitting your subscription.

Please try again. First Name. Email Address. We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. Trackbacks […] week we looked at what 3 weird things you might find at an English crossroads. Have your say! Cancel reply. Footer Search this website. We can find little else about the murder. It seems that Duke stabbed his wife in the breast following a trivial argument. Having been apprehended, he took his own life while under escort to the magistrate.

He later died at Middlesex Hospital — now the Fitzroy Place development. The exact location of the burial is unknown. Duke's remains were most likely found long ago, on one of the many previous excavations in the area.

But who knows? Perhaps his stake-pinned skeleton still awaits discovery among the shafts and piles of the Crossrail development. As a final note, this busy road junction — a former gallows site — has a long association with tragedy. In , at least eight people were killed when a great vat of beer gave way on the site of the Dominion Theatre. In more recent times, 37 people were killed in a night club fire on nearby Denmark Place.

Story discovered in the British Newspaper Archive. The best things to do in London.