THE FINAL JOURNEY

During the first half of the century most deaths took place at home. A clergyman would often be present at the time of death, or called to attend soon after, in order to administer the last rites. Each village or street had a woman who would come to the house to lay out the deceased (often the same woman who attended at the time of a birth). She would arrive with her bag of equipment to wash, dress and generally prepare the deceased for their burial. A hand wheel bier and horse drawn mourners carriages outside the asylum in Alton
 in the early part of the 20th century
The church bell would usually toll, sounding out the death knell. This was often repeated at the time of the funeral, calling the mourners to church. (This practice was temporarily suspended during the Second World War, as the church bell would have been rung to raise the alarm in case of invasion).
The undertaker attended the house to measure for the coffin, which was then hand-made, probably of oak or elm. Country estates often kept a stock of timber, felled from their own grounds, for such purposes. The undertaker returned to the house with the coffin, usually under cover of darkness. The deceased remained at home, in the parlour or the bedroom, until the time of the funeral. Family and friends, however young, came to file past the open coffin, paying
their last respects. People took a death in the family in their stride. It was not at all unusual for infants, children and mothers in childbirth to die. Diseases such as diphtheria could rob a family of several children within a few weeks.
When the time of the funeral came, the coffin was transported on a hand wheel bier, or in a carriage-built hearse drawn by black-plumed horses. The mourners followed the coffin from the house on foot or in mourning carriages, of which there could be many, due to most people not owning their own vehicles. A long funeral procession made a grand sight, members of the public stopped and bowed their heads as the cortege passed by. Motorised hearses, forerunners of
those used today, came into use in urban areas during the late 1920s. However, the horse-drawn hearse was still in frequent use long after this. During the war years, horses were again used to help conserve petrol supplies.
There were many small firms of builder-undertakers, who hired hearses and mourning coaches from carriage masters, and most would have owned a wheel bier. Many funerals took place in the
afternoons, this allowed the building workers to go home at lunch time to clean up ready to act as pall bearers. In some villages local men carried the coffin wearing white milking smocks, which covered their everyday clothes, enabling them all to look the same.
Burial took place in churchyards in rural areas and cemeteries in city areas. Graves were often dug up to six deep, enabling them to be reopened for further burials. Cremation became available at Southampton in 1932 and Bournemouth (then in Hampshire) in 1938. The uptake was slow at first, but increased steadily.
Black was traditionally worn at the time of a death. Black armbands were worn or a black fabric diamond may have been sewn onto the sleeve. These continued to be worn for a suitable period of mourning.
Flowers have long been associated with funerals, in Victorian times they were carried to mask unpleasant smells. The traditional round wreath or cross, often of lilies, placed on the coffin became a customary symbol of respect. Most war dead were buried, wrapped in an army blanket, where they fell. However, many were later exhumed, placed in coffins, and reburied in War Grave Commission cemeteries, either at home or abroad. Some families had their loved ones repatriated to their own locality, thus many churchyards and cemeteries contain a few war graves.
During the earlier part of the century, there were those who were denied a Christian burial. Murderers may well have been hanged publicly, but they were buried quietly in unconsecrated ground within the prison confines. Likewise, up until 1961, it was a criminal offence to be found guilty of committing suicide. Such persons were sometimes transported along back roads to their place of burial in unconsecrated ground."