Five amputated legs are now known to have been buried in Cathays Cemetery.
Newly discovered records show that two additional legs had been given their burials in Cathays Cemetery.
Friends of Cathays Cemetery have found records of two additional amputated legs being buried in the 110 acre graveyard, making a curious total of five legs buried without their owners attached.
The new legs, once belonging to William Dent and Amelia Newton, join Edith Skyrme, Charles Cravos and Samuel Chivers in the list of Victorian Cardiffians who buried their legs while still alive.
John Farnhill, treasurer of Friends of Cathays Cemetery, said: “You have to put Cathays Cemetery in the context of opening in 1859. Cemeteries in Cardiff were getting full, Cardiff was growing, and they needed a new space.”
“It isn’t uncommon to bury legs. People didn’t, and still don’t, know what to do with them.”
Wealthy eccentric Charles Cravos lost his leg to a cricket injury when he was 13, whereas Edith Skyrme was amputated after a tragic mine shaft accident. According to The Weekly Mail [1883] Chivers lost his leg from being “thrown out of a [horse and carriage] trap on the way from Pontypridd.”
Amelia Newton [1841 -1916] was amputated at the age of 60 most likely due to illness, and buried her leg in an unmarked grave. She was later laid to rest separate from her leg in Cathays Cemetery at the age of 75.
The location of William Dent [1849 – 1913] and his leg is also mysterious, they are both buried in unmarked graves. Dent’s son, also named William Dent, served in the Royal Navy and was fatally wounded at the Battle of Jutland [1916]. By researching his military history, Alt Cardiff has determined the year of his father’s death, previously unknown to the cemetery.
Dent and Horten’s stories and the locations of their legs are still under investigation.
