An exhibition exploring the commemoration of the dead in Cheshire has opened at Chester’s Grosvenor Museum.  ‘Memento Mori: Tombs and Memorials in Cheshire’ will run until 24 February.

The exhibition presents watercolours, drawings, prints, photographs and sculpture showing how Cheshire has commemorated its dead from the Romans to the present day. With tombstones, tomb-chests and mural slabs, public sculptures, cenotaphs and a shrine, the imagery of commemoration ranges across the centuries with knights and their ladies, parents and their children, skeletons and skulls, heraldry, saints and angels.

Councillor Louise Gittins, Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Wellbeing, said:  “Throughout time and across cultures, people have felt a powerful need to honour the departed and preserve their memory.  As we today remember the centenary of the end of the Great War, this exhibition presents watercolours, drawings, prints and photographs showing how Cheshire has commemorated its dead from the Romans to the present day.  With tombstones, tomb-chests and mural slabs, public sculptures, cenotaphs and a shrine, the imagery of commemoration ranges across the centuries with knights and their ladies, parents and their children, skeletons and skulls, heraldry, saints and angels.”

Clive Pointon, Chairman of the Megan Gwynne-Jones Charitable Trust and head of wills, trusts and tax at Chester law firm Aaron & Partners, said:  “The Trust has funded the conservation of many of the artworks in this exhibition.  We are very pleased to support the Grosvenor Museum in this way, facilitating the long-term care of the collection and enabling the public to enjoy these fascinating pictures.”

Brian Dykes, Chairman of the Grosvenor Museum Society, said:  “The Society is passionately committed to supporting the museum.  We are proud to have funded the restoration of the exhibition gallery and to have helped with the acquisition and conservation of artworks for this exhibition.”

Janet Axworthy, Chairman of the Chester Archaeological Society, said:  “The Society recently donated its collection of Cheshire prints to the Grosvenor Museum, and many of the pictures in the exhibition are drawn from our donation.  We are delighted that our gift is being used in this way, enabling the public to understand and enjoy the riches of Cheshire’s cultural heritage.  This is particularly appropriate since 2019 is an anniversary year for our Society, which was founded in 1849 and began the movement to create the Grosvenor Museum’s internationally important archaeological collections.”

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