THE HARDY TREE

This tree in the Old St Pancras churchyard whispers through time of the many comings and goings in this ancient graveyard in the once secluded corner of London. Over a century old, the Hardy Tree, an ash tree, is literally encircled by gravestones piled one on another. Most interestingly, Thomas Hardy the famous British novelist placed them there in 1865. Years before he became known for his tragic masterpieces and poetry, Hardy worked as an apprentice for an architect who had the contract to clear the cemetery to allow extension of the London railways. Nothing stopped progress during the Industrial Revolution in Britain, not even centuries of graves! You don’t always get to rest in peace.

Despite his qualifications, the grisly task of upending and emptying graves fell to Hardy and possibly others. In an artistic moment, Hardy decided to pile the gravestones around the huge ash tree and that is where they have remained all these years. The disinterred bodies were disrespectfully hauled onto wagons and moved to a mass grave in a new cemetery outside London.

While researching my family history, I discovered these fascinating facts about the St. Pancras church where my ancestors were baptized and married. As a huge teenage fan of Thomas Hardy novels (I named my daughter Tess after the tragic heroine of Tess of the d’Urbervilles) I decided to use the setting for the opening chapters of my historical novel, Whispers through Time. Graveyards are the most interesting of places. Each grave stone has a story of a life lived whether it was short or long, happy or sad.

Hardy, like the two Williams, Wordsworth and Blake was a Romanticist. This literary movement was not just all lovey-dovey as the name suggests but actually a protest against the ravages upon the English countryside and lives of commoners brought by so-called progress. Despairing, Hardy watched on as factory chimneys, dark, satanic mills and railways transformed great swathes of beautiful English countryside into hell on earth. Families had to move from their destroyed farmlands into town to work in the factories and schools came into being to mind the children while parents worked. Life changed forever because of The Industrial Revolution. Now it is changing again as we are in the grip of the Digital Revolution. Change is one of the few constants in life!

The historic Hardy Tree seemed the perfect spot for my romantic character sisters, Winifred and Francesca to meet. Here they could share private girlhood chats away from their dour and disapproving mother and years later plan their escape voyage to Australia. The characters are based on my grandmother and grand-aunt who arrived in Sydney in 1912, just months after the sinking of The Titanic. Despite the opening grave yard setting, the story is a tear jerker romance with a happy ending. It is the first novel in my Time Trilogy. The sequel is in production with AM now.

 

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