Lulworth Burials

It’s important to get your dying done right, else you may not end up in the right place when you go. In Lulworth even as late as the early 20th century, you had to take a penny with you to pay your fee into heaven, and, just as practical, you’d take a hammer in your other hand so that when the last trump was sounded and we all rise up to our judgement, you could get out of the coffin quick – and maybe get to the front of the queue. To ease a dying soul on their way, the bed would be turned so that it sat along the floorboards and the soul would go out with the boards through the open door or window. Once, the squire came asking about one of his labourers, who wasn’t expected to last the week. But he found the goodwife smiling. ‘He is ever so much better today,’ she said, ‘He got out of bed, came downstairs, ate a good bit of the funeral ham, and is ever so much the stronger for it!’