Berry Hill Lane, Mansfield, Notts.

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Berry Hill Lane, Mansfield, Notts. by David Hallam-Jones as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Berry Hill Lane, Mansfield, Notts.

Image: © David Hallam-Jones Taken: 16 Jul 2017

This plot of land - said to be the highest point above sea level in Mansfield - hosts the solitary grave of Charles Thompson, an C18th merchant and philanthropist, within an otherwise undeveloped open space. This is the view of the entrance to the site from Berry Hill Lane. His grave lies deep beneath the ground in the area - ahead - surrounded by the stone wall. Although Charles Thompson, a successful cloth trader and local philanthropist (1714-1784), who was born in Mansfield, he spent much of his life outside of Nottinghamshire and the British Isles. Once, whilst in Lisbon, there was an earthquake and churches, amongst other buildings, tumbled and graves were upturned revealing bones and bodies. Upon his return to Mansfield, and as a result of this incident, Charles apparently decided that he would make arrangements for his body to be buried 18 feet down, so he could rest undisturbed by such occurrences. 33 years after his quake-proof burial here Mansfield, it seems, was struck by an "thoroughly authenticated earthquake of 4.2 on the Richter scale on 17 March 1816."

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Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
53.131737
Longitude
-1.168659