150-year-old headstones unearthed at London cemetery

A small group of Western University students have made a discovery they hope will unlock a treasure trove of information about London’s past.

Last week, the students started excavating an old section of Woodland Cemetery in an effort to find a few headstones that had been moved there over half a century ago.

“We knew the stones had been placed somewhere near the east part of the cemetery when the St. James Cemetery was moved here in 1955,” said Levi Hord, a student in the School for Advanced Studies in the Arts & Humanities at Western. “But even though the vault containing their remains is clearly marked at Woodland, records of the time didn’t map the stones at all.”

In a grassy strip along the east side of the large property, the students uncovered the first stone last week. Since then, they’ve found dozens of others dating from the 1840s to the 1860s.

The students will now spend the next four months restoring roughly 150 stones, and matching the monuments with church documents and historical records of the Londoners’ lives.

They are also planning to create a public cemetery walking tour, marking Canada’s 150th birthday, that will include the stones as well as monuments and stories of some influential Londoners through the city’s history.

A blog of their discoveries can be found here.