Hardy's grave tree with hundreds of tombstones (9 photos)

In the cemetery of St. Pancras Old Church in central London, hundreds of old tombstones are gathered around the trunk of a huge ash tree. Some call this place "The Tree of a Hundred Tombstones," others "Thomas Hardy's Grave Tree." Let's explore the history of this unusual installation that stirs the imagination.





St. Pancras Old Church in London is famous for its tombstone tree. The church once housed a large cemetery, but during the Industrial Revolution in the 1860s, a railway line was needed, and it had to pass through the cemetery.



The church donated the cemetery land for the construction of a railway, and something had to be done with the graves. This task was entrusted to the young Thomas Hardy, who, incidentally, would later become a famous writer. Thomas decided to treat the ashes of the deceased with dignity and rebury the remains. The remains were reburied in another cemetery.





Transporting the gravestones was expensive, so Hardy built them around a young ash tree. As it grew, the tree engulfed several tombstones, sending roots between the stone slabs and merging with them into a single organism.



Now this tree is a local landmark and a memorial site for Thomas Hardy.