How Abney Happened/Abney's Suffragettes: 180th Anniversary Online Talk

On Wednesday 20 May 2020 we celebrated the 180th anniversary of Abney Park Cemetery with a fascinating double bill of online talks.

Alan Gartrell gave a talk about George Collinson, the driving force behind the creation of Abney Park Cemetery. Collinson’s Cemetery Interment... with Reference to Abney Park was published in 1840, the year of the cemetery's opening. It is part advertisement, part anthology of funerary literature, part public health document and part gardening catalogue. A discussion of these elements reveals how Abney was part of the new cemetery movement and the 'Magnificent Seven' and why it is uniquely different.

This was followed by a talk about the suffragette history of Abney Park by Sam Perrin, which looked into personal histories and the wider context of those women who fought for their rights and who are now laid to rest in Abney Park.

This event was live streamed on 20 May 2020. Watch a recording of this event below:

This recording is free to view, but please consider making a donation to help recover the loss of income incurred by Abney Park Trust due to COVID-19.