Undertakers Offer a Green Funeral with No Rules
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2 LIVING DEVON www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk WESTERN MORNING NEWS TUESDAY MARCH 24 2009 WESTERN MORNING NEWS TUESDAY MARCH 24 2009 www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk LIVING DEVON 3 Victorian clergy’s scandal put under Undertakers offeragreen funeral with no rules author’s spotlight MN050309_SH02_04 MN050309_SH02_02/PICTURES: STEVEN HAYWOOD Blame it on the Devon Vicar By Tom Hughes Halsgrove, £8.99 THE image of a Victorian country cleric is that of a man absorbed in his books, bees and bells, while tending to the spiritual needs of his flock. But what is not so well known is the number of remarkable stories of vicars, rectors and curates –plus the odd canon or dean –who found them- selves enmeshed in scandal. Be it an elopement, adulterous divorce, a pregnant servant, an assault or a slander, the papersof the day lovedunearthing such tales. As one contemporary account of the 1860s records: “A really good clerical scandal, well-spiced and judiciously prolonged in the months of September and October, is worth fifty pounds a week to the Times.” The media’s search for more of the same continues unabated today, though agood juicystory about a cleric gone wrong is worth considerably more than 10 crisp fivers! According to American writer Tom Hughes, it can be argued that no decade has seen a greater spate of bad clergymen in the Church of England than the 1840s and the worst of them was found in the remote Mid-Devon village of Nymet Rowland, near Crediton. His name was the Rev Charles Rookes. Ordained in 1827, the rector arrived at the village’s St Bartholomew Church with his wife Mary in 1837 and servedthere until his final disgrace and removal in 1849. However, from 1839 he chose to live in nearby Exeter –amove made when his wife left him and sought a separation “from bed, board and mutual cohabitation, by reason of cruelty.” Specifically, Mrs Rookes claimed her husband had forced her to have a series of miscarriages. What happened next is revealed in Mr Hughes’ compelling new book about the curious conduct of some of Devon’s Victorian clerics. After taking up residence in Hill’s Court in the Exeter parish of St Rupert and Claire Callender of the Green Funeral Company, with Carter the dog Sidwell, Mr Rookes first lived there with a female servant. But when she became ill with smallpox, he replaced her with Maria Brooks. HERE is something vaguely comedic circle on the moor. We’ve processed through about undertakers. The word pro- Caroline Doughty meets an a torchlit wood and stood round agrave in Mr Rookes was in his forties, while Maria was in her early twenties. T undertaker couple who seem to She soon fell pregnant and the rector gave her a potion she claimed he vokes images of solemn old men in silence with four people,” said Claire. said had been prepared from “something that will do you no harm, if it ill-fitting, black suits –the sort of man whose break the mould of the “One funeral I loved was for a man who had won’t do you any good”. She lost face you will never recall when you think of a traditionally perceived role planted a wood 30 years before. He died and the baby. funeral. we kept him at home, with four generations of She later fell pregnant again, but Which is why Rupert and Claire Callender his family,” said Rupert. this time, after some dispute, and are so utterly startling. They laugh, they wear the people who’ve been left behind,” he said, “He was an old man, he died at mid- at the insistence of her mother and jeans, they are incredibly funny and they love and is mildly irritated by people who arrange summer and we did a torchlit burial at dusk. her elder sister, Maria had her being undertakers. their entire funeral themselves before they We filled his wood with 150 candles hanging child. A doctor waspresent at the The Callenders have just movedtheir die. from the trees. His grandsons had dug the birth of a boy, but he died three Green Funeral Company from Cornwall to graveand put torches around it. His son, a the Dartington Estate near Totnes, where it “This is for you –it’s about them but it’s for carpenter, built his coffin. His grandson fired days later. you. There is awhole movement of not Maria fell ill and the local sur- fits in with an ethos of sustainable land use rockets and we stood together and drank the and protecting the environment. wanting to burden your family and wanting to last of his home-made wine.” geon thought a specialist might be protect them. But let’s be honest, there is The Green Funeral Company, run by Not everyone’s funeral is going to be so needed. The obvious man to call Sited at the end of alane, next to a field nothing to do between the dying and the Claire and Rupert Callender, is at the theatrical and Rupert stresses they have done was the renowned Exeter physician where flowers and vegwill soon be growing, funeral apartfrom organising the damned manyvery straightforward churchyard buri- end of a lane, next to a field. Their office Thomas Shapter. But Mr Rookes their office is acosy little wooden building thing.” with awoodburning stove,sofa and brightly als. “It’s all about having the right funeral for (below) is a cosy building with a pleaded that Shapter should not be brought in, for the medic was a close Claire believes this time is crucial to the associate of Henry Phillpotts, the Bishop of Exeter. Mr Rookes could coloured cushions. the right person,” he said. woodburning stove and comfy chairs There is nothing austere or depressing long-term process of grief and healing. It also But even in atraditional service you can not risk the exposure and the speedy censure that would surely follow, helps them reflect the true nature of the so Mr Shapter was not called. about this place and while they had only just choose a willow coffin, ask people to speak, person in the funeral and enables them to MN050309_SH02_01 Maria rallied and remained at Hill’s Court for a six years. There were moved in when I visited, I felt that had there perform music or choose readings that reflect the funeral, where someone will carry on been a dead body in the room next door, I guide families towards more personal the person who has died. four more pregnancies, all ending in miscarriage. There was never any choices. listening once formalities are over. indication these miscarriages had been forced, as the rector’s wife had would still have found it a welcoming place to Rupert wasinspired to join a profession “Most high street undertakers think it’s They are extremely excited to have been previously claimed, but as a result of her misfortunes Maria’s health sit and chat. Which is exactly what they want which usually runs in families by an interview asked to be trustees of the Natural Death was not strong and her younger sister, Annie, moved in to help. to achieve. important to maintain aprofessional dis- he saw on television with Nicholas Albery, tance, whereas we sit and crywith people,” Centre –an organisation which advises peo- According to the book, the Brooks sisters grew alarmed at increasing “If you’vehad any experience of a grim founder of the Natural Death Centre. she said. “Wespend an intense week to two ple about natural burial grounds and fam- indications that Mr Rookes had transferred his affections to awoman undertaker, we are quite refreshing,” said “It was a revelation,” he said. “I thought weeks with them finding out all about them ily-organised funerals. It went through a identified only as “Miss E”. Eventually the sisters left. Claire. “You don’t have to tidy up your house that’s it! I’m going to be an undertaker. and their family and friends.” rocky patch last year after founder Mr Albery Repercussions for the clerical career of Mr Rookes then followed, for for us. Yo u don’t have to understand any “The third funeral I did wasaviolent was killed in a car accident and it hit financial Maria’s mother began legal proceedings, claiming compensation for etiquette –the Victorian funeral rituals are all ‘If you’ve had experience suicide. That was the point where I could difficulties, butit is being relaunched with a the “seduction and losses of services” of her daughter. In July 1849, a about not embarrassing anyone with your of a grim undertaker, have said right, I’m out of here... but it new management and trustee team. grief on the day. jury of Exeter men found in favour of the mother and she was awarded we are quite refreshing’ initiated me. Her partner was extraordinary. I “It’s not just about greener ways to deal £100. “For us what is most important is honesty. learned more from them than from anyone in with our dead, it’s about death itself, and the Applause and hoots of approval greeted the verdict, while in London, We are not scared of what people are feeling; Death has slowly butsurely become a my life. He didn’t let the manner of her death rituals surrounding death,” said Rupert. The Times fired off athunderous denunciation. The newspaper said: of their grief or their fear or their anger.” mystery to us, as people die older and in define her life, she was so much more than “We’re all going to have to come to terms “[The Rev Rookes] led a life of open and abominable scandal, She and Rupert deal with the whole funeral hospitals and nursing homes, rather than at that, it was an amazing funeral.” with the green aspect of funerals.Cremation separated from his wife, carrying on adulterous intercourse with one process, from the initial phone call to picking home, surrounded by family.