Victorian pet cemeteries: animals in the afterlife

History Extra podcast

Immediate Media

History

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

In the 19th century, devoted pet-owners established Britain’s first pet cemeteries. Dr Eric Tourigny explains what they tell us about Victorian attitudes to animals

In the 19th century, devoted pet-owners established Britain’s first pet cemeteries. Dr Eric Tourigny of Newcastle University, who has been analysing inscriptions on animal gravestones dating back to the 1880s, explains what they tell us about Victorian attitudes to animals, and how Britain became a nation of pet lovers.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Extra Podcast from BBC History Magazine, Britain's
0:15.7	bestselling history magazine.
0:25.4	I'm Ellie Corpon.
0:27.9	Just like us, the Victorians loved their pets.
0:31.7	And this didn't just end when the pets died.
0:34.2	In the 19th century, the first pet symmetries appeared in Britain.
0:39.0	Dr Eric Turinny of Newcastle University has been studying them.
0:43.7	And our content director David Musgrove called him to find out what they can tell us about
0:48.5	Victorian attitudes to animals.
0:50.9	Right.
0:51.9	So, Eric, you've been running a fascinating research project into pet symmetries from
0:58.7	the Victorian period to the present, which you've just published an interesting article about
1:04.2	it in the journal antiquity.
1:05.6	What have you been doing?
1:07.4	Can you just give us an outline of your research?
1:09.9	Yeah, well, first of all, thank you very much for having me here.
1:13.6	Yeah, as an archaeologist, I've long recognized the potential of symmetries to record different
1:22.5	aspects of our past.
1:24.3	And historians and archaeologists, as you may know, have used human symmetries to reconstruct
1:30.1	social relationships between people in the past, local sort of demographics, various research
1:37.0	questions.
1:38.2	And nobody has ever thought to look at pet symmetries to see how, to what extent they record
	...

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