Desecration of a grave

A couple of weeks ago, the statue of Edward Colston in central Bristol was pulled down and it reminded me of a local grave – that of (possibly freed) slave Scipio Africanus, which I first learnt about at school. I couldn’t remember very much about it, so I paid it a visit to grab a photograph, and then set about a little armchair research to remind myself of the detail and/or improve on what I may have been taught at school. I then wrote about it on this blog.

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The old Henbury School badge

I began my recent post about the grave of Scipio Africanus with an explanation of how I first came to know of its existence – which was that while attending Henbury School, we visited the local St Mary’s Church and were shown the grave and given a little information about it. This was probably in the context of learning something about the slave trade.

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The grave of Scipio Africanus

In light of recent events – in particular the statue of Edward Colston here in Bristol being pulled down and plunged into the harbour last weekend – I thought it might be worth taking a look at something not entirely unrelated: The grave of Scipio Africanus, situated in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, Henbury, Bristol.

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Tales from the pandumbic – part 8

Fools and their social distance are soon parted I’ve just nipped to the shop to get some bread and a few other bits and pieces, and having gone around the store and picked up what I wanted, I headed for the checkout area. I reached the checkouts, and stopped at the appropriate line marking, just as someone else arrived ahead of me from another aisle. He went straight up to the belt and began unloading his shopping from the basket. That all sounds fine so far, doesn’t it?

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