When the lights come on at four
At the end of another year?
Give me your arm, old toad;
Help me down Cemetery Road
Toads Revisited, Philip Larkin
The north side of Spring Bank West between Princes Avenue and Chanterlands Avenue is divided between the disused old General Cemetery of Hull, established in 1847 and now overtaken by trees, and the Western Cemetery which is still in use.
The gates, walls and chapels of the old cemetery site were demolished shortly after it was deconsecrated in 1972 and handed over to Hull City Council. It is an eerie place with pathways through the woods between scattered tombstones and monuments. As a plaque at the gate recounts, the poet Philip Larkin used to visit the area and photograph it and was an active member of the campaign to save the site in the 1970s. In a BBC documentary at the time he said to John Betjeman "I find that, when I come here on a wet Sunday afternoon in December,..when it isn't at all romantic...it gets my worries into perspective".
Larkin went on to say that the site was "the most beautiful spot in Hull." and described it as ‘… a natural cathedral, an inimitable blended growth of nature and humanity over a century; something that no other town could create whatever its resources.
You'll find this magnetic nano cache at what remains of the old gates. Please bring your own pen for signing the logbook and please be discreet when retrieving and hiding the cache.
W (a.k.a. DidianRay)
