Monument to John Urpeth Rastrick, by W. & J. Freeman. Lewes Road, Brighton, East Sussex. Fashioned in the shape of a railway turntable, this is described on the Art UK website as an "imposing, large south-facing granite monument which is the largest in the Extra-Mural Cemetery." The inscription presents Rastrick as the "ENGINEER OF/ AMONGST NUMEROUS OTHER WORKS/ THE LONDON BRIGHTON AND EAST COAST RAILWAYS" — this must have been the project of which he was proudest.
Another view.
The cemetery here had only been laid out in 1850, originally as a private cemetery, and has a variety of unusual memorials. According to David Arscott, this Cornish granite monument is 10 feet tall and 50 feet wide, and had to be pulled in by twenty horses, a process which required demolishing a wall.
The end shown above is emblazoned with the heraldic shield of the Rastricks, perhaps justifying the view that the larger memorials in the cemetery are "self-aggrandising" (Arscott 12). But the family arms, sporting three Yorkshire roses, simply mark the family vault over which the monument is placed. The whole ensemble seems a fitting and even somewhat whimsical tribute to the most famous member of the family, one of the true pioneers in the history of the railways.
Photographs by Lawrence Suss, made available on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC), by Art UK. Text by Jacqueline Banerjee.
Bibliography
Arscott, David. Dead and Buried in Sussex, incorporating What the Vicar Saw. Lewes: Pomegranate Press, 2007.
"The Lewes Road Cemeteries." Directory. http://www.7directory.co.uk/brightonhistory/lewes-road-cemeteries
Monument to John Urpeth Rastrick. W. & J. Freeman. Lewes Road, Brighton, East Sussex. Art UK. Web. 20 March 2024.
"Rastrick History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms." House of Names (a more ornate version here). Web. 20 March 2024. https://www.houseofnames.com/rastrick-family-crest#History.
Created 20 March 2024