💥 Wiki Wednesday 💥 - Inscription or "Guinea" Graves - common in the UK
Inscription Graves (or Guinea Graves)…
…were a type of common grave for a number of unrelated people buried at the same time, but unlike pauper graves they had headstones commemorating the names of the dead. Each stone served two graves (one to the east, one to the west of it), and the inscriptions gave the names, ages and dates of death of the unrelated dead in the graves. This type of burial originally cost the family one guinea (21 shillings or £1.05) - half-price for children - so that it soon acquired the unofficial nickname 'guinea grave'. In 1921 a 'guinea grave' cost £2. The cost included a commemorative inscription of up to 36 letters. Guinea Graves were introduced in 1857 and continued until 1940. They enabled impoverished people to provide a decent burial for their loved ones in a communal plot with a shared headstone.
Here is a headstone example:
