The Lyke Wake Walk from Osmotherley to Ravenscar, which you may have heard of, commemorates the old routes - hence the coffin and corpse candle on the badge.
This is why I like history now; the little niches and dusty corners and roadside stops that offer little treasures like this. Thank you for teaching me something today! 😊
In Scotland, when the coffin was rested on the stone, ‘refreshments’ 😉 were taken. With each stop the ‘refreshments’ would add up and there were times the coffin didn’t reach the graveyard for quite some time 😊. P.S. ‘Refreshments’ means Whisky. It was never referred to as whisky because the Church frowned upon such things, hence ‘refreshments’. 😉
I have known of these 'special resting places' where it was considered 'safe' to rest the coffin on the way to the burial place for over 50 years, but I was told that they were called coffin stones and that these areas were specifically 'sanctified' so a coffin could be but down there but at no risk to the dead persons soul, as having the corpse in contact with 'normal' ground would/could put the dead persons soul at risk of ......... well something.
As coffins did not become commonplace until the Victorian Era, for other than Royalty and nobles, the term “coffin stone” wouldn’t have been used until pretty recently I don’t think.
Anglo-American here. My heritage is infantile in this country. I love reading and listening to the layers of history and traditions of long-standing cultures.
@@Wayne-O-5169 just looked it up, and apparantly it was only by the 17th century that most were buried in a coffin or casket including the poor but the deceased was carried in a reusable coffin troughout medieval history, they would then be taken out of them and buried in their burial shroud instead honestly i feel like the practice of using a burial shroud over a coffin would be more logical given how graveyard workers are desensitized and will not care to much about brute forcing things if they have to, (to be fair it doesn't take long for your loved ones to go from a human body to a thin layer of dicolored sediment in the ground anyway)
@@tinawelch3005 Oooh! Then you'll love the British show _Time Team._ I discovered it during the 2020 Lockdown Era, and watched my way through all 20 seasons. A show about archaeology and history sounds like a real snooze, but it ain't, by any stretch. There are loads of episodes available on RUclips.
Even though I knew that the deceased had to be buried in consecrated ground and that they could be carried quite long distances, I have never heard of corpse roads or corpse stones. Thank you for enlightening me.
I'm not sure if anybody has made the connection, but this video reminded me of Queen Eleanor, who died in 1290. To honour her, King Edward I had 12 ornate crosses erected at every location where her body rested on its journey from the East Midlands to London prior to her burial. In a sense, the crosses were a grander form of corpse stones.
Corpse stones were present on corpse tracks/lanes before the corpse gor to them. Corpse stones were low & flat so the body could be placed on them fairly easily. Corpse stones commemorated no-one and nothing, they merely provided an accessible surface that corpse carriers could reach & the corpse wouldn't roll off while the carriers had a rest. Eleanor's crosses were erected to mark the route her body had been taken, her body never rested on them. The crosses were bought by a wealthy man in memory of someone special to him. They aren't, and were never intended to be seen as, corpse stones, to be used freely by carriers who needed a rest.
@@juliebraden6911 I'm only 25 but I'd say its just the shock factor of living on this earth for 50 plus years and learning something new. Who cares that they do it, maybe we'll understand when we are "old people". Just feel fortunate to be old and misunderstood than dead and young because you might not make it to then.
From a physical standpoint it seems like the journey would also be therapeutic for the grieving families farther out, all that time spent walking giving them a chance to reflect, calm their minds, and ease their nervous systems. Something they wouldn't necessarily know about in that time period but maybe reinforced its sanctity. Cool video :)
I highly doubt that. That journey was hell with nothing but tears along the way. Where I am from, there is a long journey from the church to the burial ground. It’s actually a long drive and believe me when I tell you that, that long drive to the burial ground is always the hardest thing.
@@AnjelLee-f8c I hadn't considered that but it makes sense, especially considering the lack of access they had to our modern conveniences that might have taken the strain off the journey. I could see it being physically and emotionally overwhelming
You would be racing against purification of the body but I agree, time to think soley of the deceased and be together with other family members. Just chose the fit ones to go with you.
Interesting! I've never heard of corpse roads or stones before. I love this kind of history of how the average person lived, why they did what they did and the stories behind these stones.
Near Leeds in Yorkshire there is an ancient sunken path winding between fields called 'Shell Lane'. This was the path that led from Pudsey and the adjacent villages to Carverley where the medieval parish church of St Wilfred stands. Along this pathway were borne the bodies of deceased parishioners on their way to their final resting place in the churchyard of St Wilfred's. And during the long journey they were carried in lightweight coffins called 'shells' - before being transferred to heavier coffins for burial.
@db61487 I guess the lightweight shells wouldn't have been deemed suitable for a burial. And St Wilfreds being the parish churchyard no doubt there would have been a local carpenter who would cater to the steady stream of 'customers'.
this isnt considered to be ancient , such is the breadth and depth of our past, it.s only a mere 500 years ago. We have sites and features used and made going back many millennia.
That is fascinating! I did a MA in Heritage 20 years ago and my thesis was all about Dark Tourism and I researched LOADS on funeral customs around the world and looked at the history of graveyards..I NEVER came across this subject..amazing stuff. Thank you!!
Hi...I read your comment with interest. I did an MA (Local History) myself here in Ireland which would be the equivalent of your Heritage MA I would think and my thesis was also on rituals, customs and practices around death, dying and the afterlife. Far from being depressing I found it to be really life affirming and I have been invited to give talks several times to Historical Societies locally and the interest in the subject is amazing. I would be very interested in reading yours if available and can gladly email you mine if you wish. There will be surprising similarities in many little known practices I'm sure. Kind Regards Philip Dee Limerick Ireland
Amazing! Weird phrasing though. That may be "dark tourism" only by nowadays' standards, when people are solely attached to material stuff and pretend we have no souls and also pretend Our Lord Jesus Christ isn't God. The tourism you refer to is actually the tourism that counts, traveling to humble ourselves and pray for the dead - hopefully, because people don't pray for the dead anymore because everybody has been contaminated by heretic protestant false doctrine.
@@mattmarzula by your comment, I am going to assume you neither speak another language nor have you taught a language. Someone who speaks English isn’t going to watch this video, but someone who speaks English well as a second language might. It’s unlikely that an English learner would know a word like corpse since it’s not part of the everyday lexicon.
Thank you for the video 👍👍👍. In Austria, dead people were carried over mountain passes for days at great expense just to be buried near a church. In winter, in the snow - sometimes at the risk of their lives. That was several centuries ago. It's the same story.....
What happened to people who couldn’t afford it? What if the person didn’t have family or friends? Were there charities that would do it? Just interested in different histories thanks to anyone who replies 🫶
@@WhatALovelyDisaster In small villages in the mountains, where everyone knew everyone and families mostly lived together. There, the harvest was brought in together or the cattle were driven to the mountain pastures. The winters in the Alps are very hard, you couldn't survive alone at that time. I can't imagine that anyone was left alone. Faith was very strong back then. I can imagine that people believed that they wouldn't go to heaven if they didn't fulfill their duty to accompany someone on their last journey. That was the worst thing that could happen to people back then. The people in the Alps are very religious - even today. And if you go hiking a lot (like me) - I'm talking about mountains 3-4000 meters high, not small hills - you are sometimes glad to come back down safely. Then you know why these people are religious. The forces of nature (avalanches, wind, snow, ...) that you are sometimes exposed to are still enormous today. How must it have been in the Middle Ages, .... (sorry for my english 😊)
@@WhatALovelyDisaster This happened in small villages in the Alps, where everyone knew everyone and families lived together. The cattle were driven to the mountain pastures together and the harvest was brought in together. You couldn't survive alone back then. People were very religious and the fear of not going to heaven if you didn't fulfill this last duty was very great. People helped without any organization, it was just a matter of natural that they helped each other. This is still common in the mountains today (outside of tourism). In German, a distinction is made between "Sie" and "Du" when speaking to a person (this does not exist in English). "Sie" is formal and respectful. You are on "Du" with friends. If you are above 1000 meters in the Alps, you are on "Du" with everyone. This breaks down barriers and you are more likely to help friends. (sorry for my english)
My father would tell the tale of a corpse been transported on mare that had recently foaled.The morners stopped for refreshments near to the end of their journey,only for the horse to slip her rein and return to her foal,carring the corpse back with her!
In Iceland there's a story of a family who lived far from a church that had one faithful horse. The sturdy creature would patiently carry the coffin of a member of the family on her back to the consecrated ground for burial. Now Icelandic horses are long-lived and extraordinarily intelligent. The family who owned the mare began to dwindle. After each member passed away the mare carried the coffin to the burial grounds on her back as the roads were too rough for a wagon. Eventually there was only one family member left. One day, the mare came to the burial grounds all alone with the coffin containing the last member of the family on her back. When the coffin was unloaded, the mare gave an eerie whinny and ran off into the wild and was never seen again.
@TheRealChaosQueen No, it shows the sense of duty the horse had to her family. The mystery is how, in a remote and unpopulated area, did the coffin with the last member of that family get loaded onto the horse and how did she know all by herself to take it to the burial grounds.
I love natural places which have been worn through hundreds or thousands of years of inhabitation. A glimpse of Tolkiens middle earth. Wonderful location and a fascinating subject, thanks for posting.
What a fantastic slice of history. I read a lot of history but have never heard of this. Thank you so much. And those trees in the background look suitably eerie.
Wow. Great story. But this story is all the more reason to park oneself on a corpse stone and connect with the ages of people who came before us. That that little road hasn’t been paved over is a wonder and a comfort.
Very interesting! In northen sweden it was impossible to transport corpses (and bury them in the frozen ground) during the winter months so you had to keep them in a cold outhouse, maybe for months before spring.
During the Black Death, people had to be buried in gardens, and in pits. The churchyards were all full up, and people had to be buried as quickly as possible, wherever they could be.
@@jamestoday2239 They tried that. Didn't stop a third of Europe dying between 1348 and 1350. That included North Africa, China and Russia. It wasn't until 1910, wheen there was a major outbreak in the slum that was Hong Kong, that Alexandre Yersin discovered the bacillus that causes Plague. And that is why the baccillus is called Yersina Pestis. There are cases every year in some states of America, and every so often in some countries in Africa. Because it is a bacillus, it responds very well to antibiotics, provided the person gets medical attention very quickly. They may lose their hands, feet and nose, depending on the severity of the disease. So any idea that Plague no longer exists, can be put to bed right now. There are three strains, Bubonic, primary or secondary Pulmonary ie lungs, and Septicaemic, or blood and heart plague. Bubonic is the most common, but can progress to pneumonic if not treated quickly. Septicaemic plague is very rare, but if Bubonic plague is not treated, and it becomes systemic, the person will die of all three. It travels via the lymph nodes and glands, and this is why it can attack a whole host of organs. In the 14th century, they didn't know any of this. Their idea of medicine was astronomical charts, bleeding, looking at the colour of urine and talking about the four humours of the body. They had no chance at all.
I read something once, about how they used to take the dead across Burnmoor in Cumbria, to the nearest church. They would strap the coffin to a horse's back and lead it across the moor. On one misty day, as they were crossing the usual trail, something spooked the horse and it bolted off into the mist. No amount of searching for the horse, or coffin, resulted in any find. It is local folklore that lone travellers crossing Burnmoor on misty days have heard, or even seen the animal and it's payload galloping past.
Very informative! How often we find true and accurate reports of historical facts differ from our modern views. Thank you for creating this. Viewing from the USA.
The quick little explanation of a word that might be new to non english speakers made me instantly subscribe! A really considerate thing to do, and done so tactfully too!
I've been interested in the history and traditions surrounding Halloween and how they came about and changed over the years, but this is the first I've ever heard of corpse stones. Great video, and I'm happy to say I learned a lot from it.
Brilliant - I really enjoy the videos on navigation & map reading but love the little detours into unusual places, features & stories off the main routes!
Fun thought, While Wifi transmissions do become to weak to be detected, they never quite drop to zero. So because of transmissions of this video, his likeness will be standing on a corpse road, on all hallows eve ... forever.
Well, I suppose they drop below the threshold of quantum uncertainty, which means the information in them is lost. I don't know how long that would take.
This yank thanks you for the explaination. I like British history and have heard of corpse stones but did not quite understand them. Now I do. Please keep these "waffels" coming!
Not just England, there are three other countries in the U.K. corpse roads are in Wales, Scotland and the island of Ireland, also if you committed suicide or Self Murder as it was known, the coffin would not be allowed through the Lytchgate, it had to be passed over the wall and the gravestone would face the opposite way
This continued in commonwealth countries where the suicide person had to be buried outside the church cemetery. Working in Northern Canada where Scottish Factors ran trading posts, and Anglican and Cathlic churches were scattered about small settlements, there were various Graves outside the wall. Some were foreign traders of foreign religions as the stones read.
Super interesting and informative video. Also really appreciate taking a second to explain the word corpse to people learning English, I would have loved to watch more people like you back when I was still learning the language. Simple but very considerate.
In upper Swaledale in Yorkshire there is a well trodden Corpse road Leading downdale from the Lead mines At Keld. I married 56 years ago and I took my young wife on a hike from Keld to Grinton We sat on a flat rock for our lunch. I told my wife what she was sitting on. She thre wa sandwhich at me and wouldnt speak for days.After 56 , ah what bliss!.
I love it when informative videos like these pop up on my feed. As a brit myself, i wish i knew this so i could appreciate the old customs of honouring the dead
I love it! Thank you for explaining this all. Many times, we go through life without understanding or giving thought to why and how we got to where we are now. traditions and even words meny times have lost their origins to time.
Superb as usual. I shall be looking out for these on future walks. The things we walk past and have no idea what they were used for. You now have me looking at Lych Ways and Bier Ways. Please keep waffling.
very fascinating and well presented! I learned not only about stones but I think I understood the connection between the church and the cemetery better and the thought of these roads existing and being very public makes death seem like such a more connected part of their society. Today people don't care much about who died in their community unless they are closely related or very famous. But then, it was something more people were in touch with on a regular basis.
Your videos and commentary are always so interesting. Thank you for the effort you put into them. As a boy I inherited a Brunton pocket transit from a great-uncle who was a civil engineer. With your excellent "teaching-through-entertainment" presentations, I learned how to use it!.
It's great the stone blocks are still there! Are there specific markers on old maps to identify Corpse Rds? We were near Hardwick Oxfordshire recently and found a Deadmans Lane & wondered what the derivation could be. Another name for a corpse rd perhaps?
Very cool. I'm half Native American and half English. I was planning a trip to see my mother land. After the election I'm pretty sure I'd like to live there forever. Thanks for the vid. Great work!
Don't blame you. I wish I could go with you. Because I think American society is gonna really go down hill fast after this. Not sure Trump's gonna make things better.
"When the Indians first made their appearance on the Klamath river it was already inhabited by a White race of people known among us as the Wa-gas. These White people were found to inhabit the whole continent, a highly moral and civilized race. They heartily welcomed the Indians to their country and taught us all their arts and sciences. The Indians recognized the rights of these ancient people as the first possessors of the soil and no difficulties arose between the two people." - To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman by Lucy Thomp-son These same White indigenous tribes of North America were also described by another Indian woman named Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins in her 1883 book - Life Among The Piutes; Their Wrongs and Claims - who said that her tribe killed 2600 reddish-haired people living along the Humboldt River, which lasted 3 years, the Asiatics finally trapped the last of the natives in a cave and burned them out with a large fire. Whites were well and truly first in America, and non-Whites sought to kill them all. All that ancient "civilization" south of the US border was merely the product of proto-European refugees setting up shop with Asiatic slaves at hand who would have other-wise killed them-selves off like their cousins due north. Every-one (born here) is a Native American.
Grass is always greener my American friends 😅 seems the U.K. is trying its best to emulate all the worst bits about US, like private healthcare and celebrity politicians 😅
Very interesting .There was such a stone on my Great Grandfathers land in Ireland When someone died on the Aran Islands and was to be buried on the mainland , they would sail the body to Carna and land there and rest the coffin on a particular store...creepy
That was very, very well explained and done. I stumbled across this video, don’t know what else you actually do, but subscribed immediately just because this was so good. Thanks a lot, I highly appreciate knowing about the corpse roads and corpse stones and the mindset and culture behind it now.
It's incredible how much history is just lying around in plain sight in the UK. Sure, there's some old walls in some towns in America, but nothing like the scale seen in the UK.
I think I've seen both 'coffin road' and 'corpse road' used for these routes on maps. The famous Lyke Wake Walk up on the Pennines is one such road. 'Lyke', or 'Lych' were old Anglo-Saxon words for a corpse - hence 'Lych gate' at the entrance to a churchyard, which had seats on which the bearers could rest after their journey. Their departed friend would usually feel rather 'let down' shortly afterwards.....
I find it interesting from a psychological point of view, that our Narrator for this video seemed oddly nervous, occasionally trying to stifle a nervous laugh, as though he thought the viewing audience would think it bizarre, or him being strange in some way, to tell that "corpse roads" or "corpse stones" actually existed. It all seems perfectly logical to me that people had to carry the corpse a distance to be buried and had to stop to rest. Perfectly normal. No need to find it odd. Unless, the Narrator is superstitious and felt uncomfortable being out and about on All-Hallows-Eve. My grandmother would always insist that the ceiling of our front porch be painted "haint blue," to ward off evil spirits, and she would have little bowls of crystals or statues of spirit animals at the entrances to her house, to ward off bad spirits and potential voodoo spells and such. Corpse Roads and Stones makes perfectly good sense to me.
I think it's because he didn't intend to do this whole speech, seems like he was doing a plant information video and went on an interesting tangent. So, could be a mix of feeling a bit nervous to be on the haunted road on the haunted day, plus feeling like he was straying from the point and being a bit uncomfortable about it.
@@TheMapReadingCompany thanks, glad he liked it! it is a lovely place with lots of historical and cultural sites packed in a small space, quite unique with British, Italian and apArab influences among others. Cheers.
This guy lives in a real Skyrim. We have almost identical countryside over here in New England, but our history as far as stone and some wood structures only really go back to the colonial days. Native Americans built around here with wood, mostly, and all of that is looooong gone. We do, however have a large number of scattered pre-Columbian structures all over New England, and some appear to be made by Vikings. One of my favorites that nobody knows who built it is Mystery Hill (America's Stonehenge) in southern New Hampshire. I've been there at least a dozen times.
I would love to see a movie set in the 18th or 19th century of a woman in a remote village with no church, sitting up with her dead husbands corpse at her house because he died the morning of All Hallow's Eve and they can't transport his body on the corpse road but all the spirits eventually find their way to her house to try and "rescue" her husband's spirit and the ensuing battle between the wife and the spirits. 👌🏻 Yes, I know I'm weird. Yes, I like morbid things. Horror movies and period pieces are my absolute favorite and this would be a great mashup.
I think I must point out that corpse stones were not used for coffins. They were used for bodies. Imagine the corpse sitting on the stone like a living person… this would have happened after the rigor mortis released, rigor mortis being a stage of death that typically occurs around 2 - 6 hours after death and remains, during which the corpse becomes rigid and the muscles nearly inflexible as stone. Which remains until around 36 hours, at which point the corpse becomes flexible again in a stage known as secondary flaccidity. You can place a coffin on the ground (although in some cultures that’s considered disrespectful, mainly because we no longer have a need to do it in most countries). In other cultures it’s part of tradition to place the coffin down directly on the ground to give pall bearers a rest on the way to a burial place. As one other commenter noted it was a Scottish tradition to take a drink or refreshments on the way each time the coffin was rested). Imagine coming upon someone sitting on one of those stones and talking to them, not realizing it was a corpse. Or you resting on the stones, falling asleep sitting very still and having someone else come upon you, unawares… and then you wake up and suddenly start to move!
Why would corpse stones be used for corpses and not coffins with the corpse inside? What's your basis? It sounds like you're making it up, because it's ridiculous for people to carry a rotting corpse long distances outside a coffin.
I always wondered why old churches are lower than the grave yards around them and the graves are higher than the land outside the cemetery wall. I realised that if the church is a thousand years old and 10 corpses and coffins a year are buried there, that's 10,000 corpses composted.
It looks like it's kept in very good repair. Is it still used? I'm also curious about the geography. It would be interesting to see a map, as it would have been logical to have "regular" roads connecting those villages, as well. I wonder how that was managed.
That was fascinating, 56 years I've lived in Britain and never knew this. Today I learned something new, today is a good day.
Same here.
The Lyke Wake Walk from Osmotherley to Ravenscar, which you may have heard of, commemorates the old routes - hence the coffin and corpse candle on the badge.
@@andyleighton6969 I see. Hence the dirge. Now that the penny has dropped, it makes perfect sense.
Catholicism invented fetish beliefs (like consecrating the dirt underfoot) none of which are verified in scripture.
Nor me! Absolutely fascinating!
This is why I like history now; the little niches and dusty corners and roadside stops that offer little treasures like this. Thank you for teaching me something today! 😊
i hated history in school, literally was always my worst subject. now, im 52, im obsessed.
@hollyshaw-elliemae I've always said that I learned more and more interesting history after I left school.
Sometimes it takes a while to appreciate history but once you do it's a fantastic subject and you can never know it all
Thank you - very nicely stated
❤❤
In Scotland, when the coffin was rested on the stone, ‘refreshments’ 😉 were taken. With each stop the ‘refreshments’ would add up and there were times the coffin didn’t reach the graveyard for quite some time 😊.
P.S. ‘Refreshments’ means Whisky. It was never referred to as whisky because the Church frowned upon such things, hence ‘refreshments’. 😉
Bhaha 😂
Why does that not surprise me? 🤣
My brain farted at "the coffin didn't reach the graveyard" and somehow thought they were eating bits of the corpse.
@@crypto66same. Had to re-read it.
It must have been a spectacle to watch when they finally arrived at the graveyard. 🤪
I have known of these 'special resting places' where it was considered 'safe' to rest the coffin on the way to the burial place for over 50 years, but I was told that they were called coffin stones and that these areas were specifically 'sanctified' so a coffin could be but down there but at no risk to the dead persons soul, as having the corpse in contact with 'normal' ground would/could put the dead persons soul at risk of ......... well something.
As coffins did not become commonplace until the Victorian Era, for other than Royalty and nobles, the term “coffin stone” wouldn’t have been used until pretty recently I don’t think.
@@Wayne-O-5169 Possibly as they were not introduced until the 17th Century.
Anglo-American here. My heritage is infantile in this country. I love reading and listening to the layers of history and traditions of long-standing cultures.
@@Wayne-O-5169 just looked it up, and apparantly it was only by the 17th century that most were buried in a coffin or casket including the poor
but the deceased was carried in a reusable coffin troughout medieval history, they would then be taken out of them and buried in their burial shroud instead
honestly i feel like the practice of using a burial shroud over a coffin would be more logical given how graveyard workers are desensitized and will not care to much about brute forcing things if they have to, (to be fair it doesn't take long for your loved ones to go from a human body to a thin layer of dicolored sediment in the ground anyway)
@@tinawelch3005 Oooh! Then you'll love the British show _Time Team._ I discovered it during the 2020 Lockdown Era, and watched my way through all 20 seasons. A show about archaeology and history sounds like a real snooze, but it ain't, by any stretch. There are loads of episodes available on RUclips.
Even though I knew that the deceased had to be buried in consecrated ground and that they could be carried quite long distances, I have never heard of corpse roads or corpse stones. Thank you for enlightening me.
I'm not sure if anybody has made the connection, but this video reminded me of Queen Eleanor, who died in 1290. To honour her, King Edward I had 12 ornate crosses erected at every location where her body rested on its journey from the East Midlands to London prior to her burial. In a sense, the crosses were a grander form of corpse stones.
That means her body rested in corpse stones.
There is a beautiful Eleanor Cross in Northampton.
Corpse stones were present on corpse tracks/lanes before the corpse gor to them.
Corpse stones were low & flat so the body could be placed on them fairly easily.
Corpse stones commemorated no-one and nothing, they merely provided an accessible surface that corpse carriers could reach & the corpse wouldn't roll off while the carriers had a rest.
Eleanor's crosses were erected to mark the route her body had been taken, her body never rested on them. The crosses were bought by a wealthy man in memory of someone special to him. They aren't, and were never intended to be seen as, corpse stones, to be used freely by carriers who needed a rest.
What a loving thoughtful kind and respectful thing to do..thank you for sharing sending blessings to all x
I am a decendent of Queen Eleanor
I’m a 64 year old American and never knew about this. Your video is fascinating, informative and presented very well. Thank you!!
I'm a 64 year old Brit and I never knew about this either!
Why do old people feel like it's so important to announce their age for no reason
@@juliebraden6911 I'm only 25 but I'd say its just the shock factor of living on this earth for 50 plus years and learning something new. Who cares that they do it, maybe we'll understand when we are "old people". Just feel fortunate to be old and misunderstood than dead and young because you might not make it to then.
I’m a 21 year old American, and while I’m not surprised I’m learning new things, I am very glad and glad you are too lol
44 year old New Worlder and learned something, but the whole time I am wondering; what's kept on the other side of that fence?
From a physical standpoint it seems like the journey would also be therapeutic for the grieving families farther out, all that time spent walking giving them a chance to reflect, calm their minds, and ease their nervous systems. Something they wouldn't necessarily know about in that time period but maybe reinforced its sanctity. Cool video :)
Great comment! 😌♥️✨🇨🇦
@ablanccanvas Thank you!
I highly doubt that. That journey was hell with nothing but tears along the way. Where I am from, there is a long journey from the church to the burial ground. It’s actually a long drive and believe me when I tell you that, that long drive to the burial ground is always the hardest thing.
@@AnjelLee-f8c I hadn't considered that but it makes sense, especially considering the lack of access they had to our modern conveniences that might have taken the strain off the journey. I could see it being physically and emotionally overwhelming
You would be racing against purification of the body but I agree, time to think soley of the deceased and be together with other family members. Just chose the fit ones to go with you.
Interesting! I've never heard of corpse roads or stones before. I love this kind of history of how the average person lived, why they did what they did and the stories behind these stones.
Near Leeds in Yorkshire there is an ancient sunken path winding between fields called 'Shell Lane'.
This was the path that led from Pudsey and the adjacent villages to Carverley where the medieval parish church of St Wilfred stands.
Along this pathway were borne the bodies of deceased parishioners on their way to their final resting place in the churchyard of St Wilfred's.
And during the long journey they were carried in lightweight coffins called 'shells' - before being transferred to heavier coffins for burial.
That's so interesting, thanks. Why was the main coffin at the church and how did it get there?
@db61487
I guess the lightweight shells wouldn't have been deemed suitable for a burial.
And St Wilfreds being the parish churchyard no doubt there would have been a local carpenter who would cater to the steady stream of 'customers'.
Thank you for this fascinating information! I'm glad the pall bearers had a little easier task, carrying the lighter "shell".
Thank you! I live near there, was wondering if there was anything like this I could check out 🙂
Is that the same place as the calverley cut? My grandad used to tell me the headless horseman rode through there
One of the main things I love about living in Britain is the ancient history we have around every corner. Thank you.
this isnt considered to be ancient , such is the breadth and depth of our past, it.s only a mere 500 years ago. We have sites and features used and made going back many millennia.
That is fascinating! I did a MA in Heritage 20 years ago and my thesis was all about Dark Tourism and I researched LOADS on funeral customs around the world and looked at the history of graveyards..I NEVER came across this subject..amazing stuff. Thank you!!
Seems like great fodder for Dark Tourism! 😌✨🇨🇦
Hi...I read your comment with interest. I did an MA (Local History) myself here in Ireland which would be the equivalent of your Heritage MA I would think and my thesis was also on rituals, customs and practices around death, dying and the afterlife. Far from being depressing I found it to be really life affirming and I have been invited to give talks several times to Historical Societies locally and the interest in the subject is amazing. I would be very interested in reading yours if available and can gladly email you mine if you wish. There will be surprising similarities in many little known practices I'm sure.
Kind Regards
Philip Dee
Limerick
Ireland
Amazing! Weird phrasing though. That may be "dark tourism" only by nowadays' standards, when people are solely attached to material stuff and pretend we have no souls and also pretend Our Lord Jesus Christ isn't God. The tourism you refer to is actually the tourism that counts, traveling to humble ourselves and pray for the dead - hopefully, because people don't pray for the dead anymore because everybody has been contaminated by heretic protestant false doctrine.
You sound like a very interesting woman lol 😊 🪄
As an ESL teacher, I love that you took a quick second to explain the word "corpse"
Extremely thoughtful. He’s a bit of fun also
I've a former ESL tutor, and I thought it was a nice touch, too. Saves some people from having to pause the vid and find out!
If he has to explain what a "corpse" is in English while using English, how is that helping anyone? Especially since it's Latin. Or is that the joke?
@@mattmarzula by your comment, I am going to assume you neither speak another language nor have you taught a language.
Someone who speaks English isn’t going to watch this video, but someone who speaks English well as a second language might. It’s unlikely that an English learner would know a word like corpse since it’s not part of the everyday lexicon.
@@Obi-Wan_Pierogi Eh...seems likely that almost everyone who watches/watched this video speaks English.
Thank you for the video 👍👍👍. In Austria, dead people were carried over mountain passes for days at great expense just to be buried near a church. In winter, in the snow - sometimes at the risk of their lives. That was several centuries ago. It's the same story.....
Having shared history across Europe brings us together. ❤ 🇬🇧
What happened to people who couldn’t afford it? What if the person didn’t have family or friends? Were there charities that would do it? Just interested in different histories thanks to anyone who replies 🫶
@@WhatALovelyDisaster In small villages in the mountains, where everyone knew everyone and families mostly lived together. There, the harvest was brought in together or the cattle were driven to the mountain pastures. The winters in the Alps are very hard, you couldn't survive alone at that time. I can't imagine that anyone was left alone. Faith was very strong back then. I can imagine that people believed that they wouldn't go to heaven if they didn't fulfill their duty to accompany someone on their last journey. That was the worst thing that could happen to people back then.
The people in the Alps are very religious - even today. And if you go hiking a lot (like me) - I'm talking about mountains 3-4000 meters high, not small hills - you are sometimes glad to come back down safely. Then you know why these people are religious. The forces of nature (avalanches, wind, snow, ...) that you are sometimes exposed to are still enormous today. How must it have been in the Middle Ages, .... (sorry for my english 😊)
@@WhatALovelyDisaster This happened in small villages in the Alps, where everyone knew everyone and families lived together. The cattle were driven to the mountain pastures together and the harvest was brought in together. You couldn't survive alone back then.
People were very religious and the fear of not going to heaven if you didn't fulfill this last duty was very great.
People helped without any organization, it was just a matter of natural that they helped each other. This is still common in the mountains today (outside of tourism).
In German, a distinction is made between "Sie" and "Du" when speaking to a person (this does not exist in English). "Sie" is formal and respectful. You are on "Du" with friends. If you are above 1000 meters in the Alps, you are on "Du" with everyone. This breaks down barriers and you are more likely to help friends. (sorry for my english)
@davidwalpitscheker
your English is perfect thank you for taking the time to teach me something today🫶
My father would tell the tale of a corpse been transported on mare that had recently foaled.The morners stopped for refreshments near to the end of their journey,only for the horse to slip her rein and return to her foal,carring the corpse back with her!
That is wholly believable. The link between mother and offspring is only cut physically at birth.
In Iceland there's a story of a family who lived far from a church that had one faithful horse. The sturdy creature would patiently carry the coffin of a member of the family on her back to the consecrated ground for burial. Now Icelandic horses are long-lived and extraordinarily intelligent. The family who owned the mare began to dwindle. After each member passed away the mare carried the coffin to the burial grounds on her back as the roads were too rough for a wagon. Eventually there was only one family member left. One day, the mare came to the burial grounds all alone with the coffin containing the last member of the family on her back. When the coffin was unloaded, the mare gave an eerie whinny and ran off into the wild and was never seen again.
well that will teach them for separating a mare with a young foal and making her work. find another horse until the foal is weaned.
@@midnightsun9559does this story hint, that the horse did intend for them to die?😮
@TheRealChaosQueen No, it shows the sense of duty the horse had to her family. The mystery is how, in a remote and unpopulated area, did the coffin with the last member of that family get loaded onto the horse and how did she know all by herself to take it to the burial grounds.
I live in Texas, and I had never heard this history before. Absolutely fascinating. Thank you.
I love natural places which have been worn through hundreds or thousands of years of inhabitation.
A glimpse of Tolkiens middle earth.
Wonderful location and a fascinating subject, thanks for posting.
What a fantastic slice of history. I read a lot of history but have never heard of this. Thank you so much. And those trees in the background look suitably eerie.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow artwork comes to mind. I can see where the superstitious mind would be reeling in that place.
@TheTibetyak yes, I thought about that movie also.
Wow. Great story. But this story is all the more reason to park oneself on a corpse stone and connect with the ages of people who came before us. That that little road hasn’t been paved over is a wonder and a comfort.
Never heard of this before! Fascinating stuff.
And the moss on that wall is breathtaking 😁
Very interesting! In northen sweden it was impossible to transport corpses (and bury them in the frozen ground) during the winter months so you had to keep them in a cold outhouse, maybe for months before spring.
Yeah, interesting to think about the different kinds of climate, around the world + how communities needed to deal with those who had passed on.
New England in the New world same even up into the 20th century until heavier equipment became common ( I'm thinking sometime after WW2)
During the Black Death, people had to be buried in gardens, and in pits. The churchyards were all full up, and people had to be buried as quickly as possible, wherever they could be.
They found recently mass graves of the black death victims.
Splash a bit of holy water around, job done.
@@jamestoday2239 They tried that. Didn't stop a third of Europe dying between 1348 and 1350. That included North Africa, China and Russia. It wasn't until 1910, wheen there was a major outbreak in the slum that was Hong Kong, that Alexandre Yersin discovered the bacillus that causes Plague. And that is why the baccillus is called Yersina Pestis. There are cases every year in some states of America, and every so often in some countries in Africa. Because it is a bacillus, it responds very well to antibiotics, provided the person gets medical attention very quickly. They may lose their hands, feet and nose, depending on the severity of the disease. So any idea that Plague no longer exists, can be put to bed right now. There are three strains, Bubonic, primary or secondary Pulmonary ie lungs, and Septicaemic, or blood and heart plague. Bubonic is the most common, but can progress to pneumonic if not treated quickly. Septicaemic plague is very rare, but if Bubonic plague is not treated, and it becomes systemic, the person will die of all three. It travels via the lymph nodes and glands, and this is why it can attack a whole host of organs. In the 14th century, they didn't know any of this. Their idea of medicine was astronomical charts, bleeding, looking at the colour of urine and talking about the four humours of the body. They had no chance at all.
Thr church probably found a new way to save the wondering souls during the black death
@@goodnightmyprince6734 Not really. Most of the clergy died. And the rest ran away. And still died.
Outstanding and informative. Keep Calm and Waffle On!!!
No waffle in it, fascinating and informative !
2:16 So glad in my area there are Boy Scout troups, and other volunteers that maintain forgotten graveyards.
Interesting video. I like how you emphasise that this stuff was taken absolutely seriously in medieval times.
I read something once, about how they used to take the dead across Burnmoor in Cumbria, to the nearest church. They would strap the coffin to a horse's back and lead it across the moor. On one misty day, as they were crossing the usual trail, something spooked the horse and it bolted off into the mist. No amount of searching for the horse, or coffin, resulted in any find. It is local folklore that lone travellers crossing Burnmoor on misty days have heard, or even seen the animal and it's payload galloping past.
Very informative! How often we find true and accurate reports of historical facts differ from our modern views. Thank you for creating this. Viewing from the USA.
The quick little explanation of a word that might be new to non english speakers made me instantly subscribe! A really considerate thing to do, and done so tactfully too!
I've been interested in the history and traditions surrounding Halloween and how they came about and changed over the years, but this is the first I've ever heard of corpse stones. Great video, and I'm happy to say I learned a lot from it.
Brilliant - I really enjoy the videos on navigation & map reading but love the little detours into unusual places, features & stories off the main routes!
yes , goes for me too !
Walked along a few priest paths and corpse roads, never knew about corpse stones. Good stuff, waffle on 😅
Fun thought, While Wifi transmissions do become to weak to be detected, they never quite drop to zero. So because of transmissions of this video, his likeness will be standing on a corpse road, on all hallows eve ... forever.
Well, I suppose they drop below the threshold of quantum uncertainty, which means the information in them is lost. I don't know how long that would take.
This yank thanks you for the explaination. I like British history and have heard of corpse stones but did not quite understand them. Now I do. Please keep these "waffels" coming!
Not just England, there are three other countries in the U.K. corpse roads are in Wales, Scotland and the island of Ireland, also if you committed suicide or Self Murder as it was known, the coffin would not be allowed through the Lytchgate, it had to be passed over the wall and the gravestone would face the opposite way
This continued in commonwealth countries where the suicide person had to be buried outside the church cemetery. Working in Northern Canada where Scottish Factors ran trading posts, and Anglican and Cathlic churches were scattered about small settlements, there were various Graves outside the wall. Some were foreign traders of foreign religions as the stones read.
I’ve always been told if you commit “s”. Your soul wouldn’t be aloud in heaven.
There's one in my county it's called Bóithrín na Sochraide or The Funeral Road in English
Good video, though. I’ll subscribe and look for more!
@@YaYaPaBla Yes, you have to be silent in heaven as you won't be aloud.
Take a shot every time he does a nervous chuckle 😀
Thanks for the interesting vid!
Super interesting and informative video. Also really appreciate taking a second to explain the word corpse to people learning English, I would have loved to watch more people like you back when I was still learning the language. Simple but very considerate.
Love it when I learn something from RUclips, thank you!
It’s so ancient and beautiful there. Perfect backdrop for this video
In upper Swaledale in Yorkshire there is a well trodden Corpse road Leading downdale from the Lead mines At Keld. I married 56 years ago and I took my young wife on a hike from Keld to Grinton We sat on a flat rock for our lunch. I told my wife what she was sitting on. She thre wa sandwhich at me and wouldnt speak for days.After 56 , ah what bliss!.
Where was that again pls…? (36 years married)
Great story! 🤭✨🇨🇦
We women are a pain, ugh.
Nice. I'm 62 and still learning stuff 😊. Thank you.
I love it when informative videos like these pop up on my feed. As a brit myself, i wish i knew this so i could appreciate the old customs of honouring the dead
I love it! Thank you for explaining this all. Many times, we go through life without understanding or giving thought to why and how we got to where we are now. traditions and even words meny times have lost their origins to time.
Which is so unfortunate, as traditions summarise all the lore, history and institutions of a country....!
Superb as usual. I shall be looking out for these on future walks. The things we walk past and have no idea what they were used for. You now have me looking at Lych Ways and Bier Ways. Please keep waffling.
Great story telling. A clear, concise explanation and very natural. It was like you'd told that story a hundred times. Thanks!
Very interesting. And presented superbly.
Thank you for a clear and thorough explanation of Corpse stone. I will not sit on it whenever I come across one.
Walking those roads back then must have been creepy AF.
Thank you so much for this fascinating history lesson, I have never heard of this tradition .
very fascinating and well presented! I learned not only about stones but I think I understood the connection between the church and the cemetery better and the thought of these roads existing and being very public makes death seem like such a more connected part of their society. Today people don't care much about who died in their community unless they are closely related or very famous. But then, it was something more people were in touch with on a regular basis.
Your videos and commentary are always so interesting. Thank you for the effort you put into them. As a boy I inherited a Brunton pocket transit from a great-uncle who was a civil engineer. With your excellent "teaching-through-entertainment" presentations, I learned how to use it!.
You inherited a what?
MAN that is some beautiful scenery you have there.
Fascinating, as a born and bred Brit of mature years, i had not heard of this practical need from olden times...you learn something new every day!
Fascinating bit of history.
1:35 DEADicated! ..also, Corpse Road is a great name for a metal band if it isn't one already
Or a very dark novel
First single. Improper use
Got those in Norway too. Local names as "hvilesteinen" (resting stone) or "Setton"(hard to translate, put on/place on) is evidence for such a stone.
Thanks for posting this--I've never heard of these roads and their function before.
Awesome. I love maps and history. More importantly I love when a well spoken British person explains geography and history. Thanks !
British?
@@Woodman-Spare-that-treesounds British to me
That road looks like it would be super freaky at night.
It's great the stone blocks are still there! Are there specific markers on old maps to identify Corpse Rds? We were near Hardwick Oxfordshire recently and found a Deadmans Lane & wondered what the derivation could be. Another name for a corpse rd perhaps?
This is really interesting. I was completely unaware of corpse roads and stones.
Very cool. I'm half Native American and half English. I was planning a trip to see my mother land. After the election I'm pretty sure I'd like to live there forever. Thanks for the vid. Great work!
Don't blame you. I wish I could go with you. Because I think American society is gonna really go down hill fast after this. Not sure Trump's gonna make things better.
@@PoeLemicsaaaame but im much too broke to move right now
"When the Indians first made their appearance on the Klamath river it was already inhabited by a White race of people known among us as the Wa-gas. These White people were found to inhabit the whole continent, a highly moral and civilized race. They heartily welcomed the Indians to their country and taught us all their arts and sciences. The Indians recognized the rights of these ancient people as the first possessors of the soil and no difficulties arose between the two people." - To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman by Lucy Thomp-son
These same White indigenous tribes of North America were also described by another Indian woman named Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins in her 1883 book - Life Among The Piutes; Their Wrongs and Claims - who said that her tribe killed 2600 reddish-haired people living along the Humboldt River, which lasted 3 years, the Asiatics finally trapped the last of the natives in a cave and burned them out with a large fire.
Whites were well and truly first in America, and non-Whites sought to kill them all. All that ancient "civilization" south of the US border was merely the product of proto-European refugees setting up shop with Asiatic slaves at hand who would have other-wise killed them-selves off like their cousins due north.
Every-one (born here) is a Native American.
Grass is always greener my American friends 😅 seems the U.K. is trying its best to emulate all the worst bits about US, like private healthcare and celebrity politicians 😅
I actually love learning tidbits of history….
A really good presenter… very clear speech, humour balanced with lots of knowledge
That’s fascinating. I’ve never heard of these. I’m going to see if there are any corpse roads near me in Hampshire. Thanks for sharing.
Very interesting .There was such a stone on my Great Grandfathers land in Ireland When someone died on the Aran Islands and was to be buried on the mainland , they would sail the body to Carna and land there and rest the coffin on a particular store...creepy
That was very, very well explained and done. I stumbled across this video, don’t know what else you actually do, but subscribed immediately just because this was so good. Thanks a lot, I highly appreciate knowing about the corpse roads and corpse stones and the mindset and culture behind it now.
Very well explained. Brilliant and I’ll keep an Cornish eye looking out for these to relay your tale.
It's incredible how much history is just lying around in plain sight in the UK. Sure, there's some old walls in some towns in America, but nothing like the scale seen in the UK.
Excellent waffle as always. Very informative and entertaining, keep up the great work.
I think I've seen both 'coffin road' and 'corpse road' used for these routes on maps. The famous Lyke Wake Walk up on the Pennines is one such road. 'Lyke', or 'Lych' were old Anglo-Saxon words for a corpse - hence 'Lych gate' at the entrance to a churchyard, which had seats on which the bearers could rest after their journey. Their departed friend would usually feel rather 'let down' shortly afterwards.....
I find it interesting from a psychological point of view, that our Narrator for this video seemed oddly nervous, occasionally trying to stifle a nervous laugh, as though he thought the viewing audience would think it bizarre, or him being strange in some way, to tell that "corpse roads" or "corpse stones" actually existed. It all seems perfectly logical to me that people had to carry the corpse a distance to be buried and had to stop to rest. Perfectly normal. No need to find it odd. Unless, the Narrator is superstitious and felt uncomfortable being out and about on All-Hallows-Eve. My grandmother would always insist that the ceiling of our front porch be painted "haint blue," to ward off evil spirits, and she would have little bowls of crystals or statues of spirit animals at the entrances to her house, to ward off bad spirits and potential voodoo spells and such. Corpse Roads and Stones makes perfectly good sense to me.
I think it's because he didn't intend to do this whole speech, seems like he was doing a plant information video and went on an interesting tangent.
So, could be a mix of feeling a bit nervous to be on the haunted road on the haunted day, plus feeling like he was straying from the point and being a bit uncomfortable about it.
How interesting. I've learned more about history from RUclips than I ever did at school. Thank you for this history lesson.
I'm a 22 year-old Estonian and I neever knew this fascinating piece of lore.
Have to admit I've never heard of Corpse Stones before, Interesting stuff, thanks.
Just imagine how many councils have simply pulled up these stones because they're a hazard to traffic or thought to be derelict stones.
So sad
It's really sweet how he clarifies what might be a new word for some people
Love your waffles Sir, do keep them coming! Very interesting
Wow. That road would be spooky in moonlight. Those trees are gnarly.
I never knew that and I’m British. Thank you for the history lesson 🙏🇬🇧🇬🇧🏴🏴
Wonderful lesson on customs from a different time! Very interesting indeed!
I'd have a cuppa right there on that corpse stone BECAUSE it's Halloween.
Wow 😮 This was so interesting!
Top waffle. This is the good stuff. Perhaps more videos like this?
Wow! Thank you for the explanation. Warm regards from Malta.
MY friend went to Malta last year and he said it was wonderful
@@TheMapReadingCompany thanks, glad he liked it! it is a lovely place with lots of historical and cultural sites packed in a small space, quite unique with British, Italian and apArab influences among others. Cheers.
Fascinating. Thank you, I hadn't heard of this before. I had heard of the lychgate.
Incredible storytelling and really informational. You earned a subscriber!
Ha Ha Wayne. Hope no ghost messed with your sandwich and tea. Thanks for the history waffle. Always interesting stuff.
At night I could imagine the headless horseman galloping up that path.🙂
This guy lives in a real Skyrim. We have almost identical countryside over here in New England, but our history as far as stone and some wood structures only really go back to the colonial days. Native Americans built around here with wood, mostly, and all of that is looooong gone. We do, however have a large number of scattered pre-Columbian structures all over New England, and some appear to be made by Vikings. One of my favorites that nobody knows who built it is Mystery Hill (America's Stonehenge) in southern New Hampshire. I've been there at least a dozen times.
Fascinating. I could listen to you speak all day long. Lovely accent❤
I would love to see a movie set in the 18th or 19th century of a woman in a remote village with no church, sitting up with her dead husbands corpse at her house because he died the morning of All Hallow's Eve and they can't transport his body on the corpse road but all the spirits eventually find their way to her house to try and "rescue" her husband's spirit and the ensuing battle between the wife and the spirits. 👌🏻
Yes, I know I'm weird. Yes, I like morbid things. Horror movies and period pieces are my absolute favorite and this would be a great mashup.
I think I must point out that corpse stones were not used for coffins. They were used for bodies. Imagine the corpse sitting on the stone like a living person… this would have happened after the rigor mortis released, rigor mortis being a stage of death that typically occurs around 2 - 6 hours after death and remains, during which the corpse becomes rigid and the muscles nearly inflexible as stone. Which remains until around 36 hours, at which point the corpse becomes flexible again in a stage known as secondary flaccidity.
You can place a coffin on the ground (although in some cultures that’s considered disrespectful, mainly because we no longer have a need to do it in most countries). In other cultures it’s part of tradition to place the coffin down directly on the ground to give pall bearers a rest on the way to a burial place. As one other commenter noted it was a Scottish tradition to take a drink or refreshments on the way each time the coffin was rested).
Imagine coming upon someone sitting on one of those stones and talking to them, not realizing it was a corpse. Or you resting on the stones, falling asleep sitting very still and having someone else come upon you, unawares… and then you wake up and suddenly start to move!
Why would corpse stones be used for corpses and not coffins with the corpse inside? What's your basis? It sounds like you're making it up, because it's ridiculous for people to carry a rotting corpse long distances outside a coffin.
This was far more interesting than I would have thought. 👍
I always wondered why old churches are lower than the grave yards around them and the graves are higher than the land outside the cemetery wall. I realised that if the church is a thousand years old and 10 corpses and coffins a year are buried there, that's 10,000 corpses composted.
You'll find this with some ancient houses too, lower than the passing road, since the road has built up layers over time.
@erikadavis2264 Sunken lanes too, showing the traffic over a millennia or more. Fascinating.
If you think people today are crazy and weird a story like this simply confirms that people have always been crazy and weird.
How interesting never knew that, something I'll pass on to my grandchildren next time I take them on a walk, thank you
It looks like it's kept in very good repair. Is it still used? I'm also curious about the geography. It would be interesting to see a map, as it would have been logical to have "regular" roads connecting those villages, as well. I wonder how that was managed.
This is so interesting to know! And what a phenomenal presentation. Well done!!
Great video, and well presented! It's the little details that make the history of the Isles so interesting - subscribed :)
This was a profoundly absorbing waffle and quite fun and beneficial to learn.