Buried alive, not once...but twice

In my home town of Basingstoke, there is a true story of something so tragic and horrific, it just makes your skin crawl. When I was a young boy of around 10 or 11 years old, a lady I knew (I can't remember where from) informed me of this horrific story and I was so shocked I just couldn't believe her and went and found out information for myself. To my amazement, the story she told me was indeed true. 

This true story is about Mrs Alice Blunden, the wife of a well off Malt Merchant, Mr William Blunden. The year is 1674 and Mr Blunden is away on business in London, when Mrs Blunden, a woman known for her large size and enjoyment of Brandy, found herself feeling rather unwell. 

She called her maid and sent her to the local apothecary to fetch some to ease the pain. The type of pain relief back then, would have been an opiate derived from poppies. So Mrs Blunden drank the poppy water given, and fell into a very deep sleep. So much so that she could not be revived. The doctor was called, who performed the mirror test under her nose and determined that Mrs Blunden was indeed dead. 

A communication was sent to Mr Blunden, who responded advising that the funeral should wait till his return later that week. 

However the family decided to bury Mrs Blunden the following day, as it was a hot July, the heat and the large body of Mrs Blunden would go foul rather quickly (there were no fridges for bodies back in 1674) and so the funeral was conducted the following day without her husband present. The burial plot was located in the Holy Trinity Church grounds (now known as the Holy Ghost Cemetery).

The burial grounds were home to the boys playground for Queens School. Some of the children heard the cries and moans of Mrs Blunden deep down in her fresh burial plot. On one account it is said that the words "Take me out of my grave" were heard coming from the grave site. 

The boys reported this to the headmaster and were told to go away, fearing the boys were playing pranks. After the second report of this, the head teacher the following day went to the grave and heard the cries for himself.

For whatever reason, it wasn't till the following day the grave was exhumed. It appeared that Mrs Blunden had died in the time it took to get her body out of the ground. When inspected, she was covered in bruises and blood from trying to beat her way out of the coffin. So again she was declared dead and the coroner was called to check the body the following day. The body was then placed back in the coffin and popped into the grave site, however this time they would post a soldier by the grave to keep watch in case she wasn't actually dead. 

Later that evening, it started to rain and the soldier decided to pop to the local pub for a pint of the foaming ale. Upon the return in the morning the body was exhumed so the coroner could confirm if she was indeed dead, but to the shock of everyone present, new wounds were found on Mrs Blunden.  She had scratched her face and legs leaving a lot of blood inside the coffin. It now meant that Mrs Blunden was buried alive not once, but twice. This time the coroner confirmed her death. Making this the third time she was declared dead and she was buried again.

The community were shocked that Mrs Blunden was buried alive one, but to hear that she was buried alive twice was truly horrific and a court hearing was ordered to look into the matter. 

The family would have surely been imprisoned, had there not been a confession from the doctor. The mirror test up until this point never failed in determining a person's death and so the court hearing found that the neglect was with the town of Basingstoke and a great fine was said to have been passed.

There is now a plaque in the Holy Ghost Cemetery marking this tragedy.

What a complete tragedy to have happened to a person. I can't begin to imagine what that must have felt like. Thank goodness for technology and the ability to freeze bodies aye. 

I wonder what other horrors beset the Basingstoke area.................................Watch this space! 

Information from this post is sourced from my own memory and from the following source:

http://www.bas-herit-soc.org/famous_people.html#Blunden

All photographs within this blog post have been taken by Lee Hill and are not to be used without consent as they are the property of Lee Hill.