General Chat

Do the neighbours still draw their curtains when the hearse leaves the house in your street, or has this also "died a natural death" together with other norms?

Yes Sylvia, I think in the main this tradition has died out (Excuse the pun!) When I was young the house where someone had died always had white blinds or sheets placed over the window and the neighbours showed their respect by pulling the blinds.

I thought the candle was a nice gesture. Apparently here they used to throw something on the cobbles so that the horses hooves didn't make such a clatter. Before they had cards!

Yes certainly in South London they would put straw down on the road to deaden the sound of the horses hooves. I remember it happening in the 1950s and 1960s. Also most of the street closing the curtains as a mark of respect. Sue

Most people these days are out at work and not around to observe these niceties.

When my grandmother died in 1984 I saw that all the curtains were drawn so i pulled them all back only to be told I should have left them as that was a mark of respect. Ok but I was never told that and i was well into my twenties then and had no idea, I have never drawn the curtains since mind

I seem to remember something about drawing the curtains, but I think lighting a candle in the window is a really nice gesture. Other courtesies which sometimes remain today, are allowing a funeral procession of cars to pass without interruption (i.e., other cars cutting in on roundabouts, etc), and gentlemen doffing their hats as the hearse passes by. However, I don't think you are allowed to got through a red light if part of the possession has already passed in front. Kathy xx