Mary Shelley, author of the groundbreaking novel Frankenstein, never lived in Bournemouth. Yet the coastal town became her final home when she was laid to rest at St Peter's Church in 1851, alongside her revolutionary parents and, reputedly, the heart of her poet husband.
A Burial Against Her Wishes
Mary Shelley died on 1 February 1851 at Chester Square in London, aged 53. Her physician suspected a brain tumour. She had expressed a wish to be buried at St Pancras Old Church in London, where her mother Mary Wollstonecraft rested. However, her son Sir Percy Florence Shelley and his wife Jane judged the St Pancras graveyard "dreadful" and made alternative arrangements.
They selected St Peter's Church in Bournemouth, near their new home at Boscombe. The church, now Grade I listed with its distinctive 202-foot spire, became the Shelley family vault. Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin's coffins were exhumed from St Pancras and reinterred alongside their daughter. Local tradition holds that Percy Bysshe Shelley's heart, saved from his cremation in Italy, was also buried with Mary.
The Home She Never Saw
Sir Percy Florence Shelley purchased the Boscombe estate in 1849 with the express intention of making it a home for his mother. The property, originally built as Boscombe Cottage in 1801, had passed through several names: Boscombe Lodge, Boscombe House, and eventually Boscombe Manor. Today it is known as Shelley Park and houses the Shelley Manor Medical Centre in Beechwood Avenue.
Mary Shelley died before she could take residence. Her son and daughter-in-law divided their time between the manor and their London house in Chelsea. Sir Percy Florence Shelley died on 5 December 1889 at Bournemouth and was buried in the same family vault as his mother.
The Shelley Legacy in Boscombe
The Shelley family left a lasting mark on the area beyond the graveyard. Sir Percy Florence Shelley rebuilt and extended Boscombe House extensively, adding a 200-seat theatre designed by architect Christopher Crabb Creeke. The theatre was later expanded to seat 300.
Lady Jane Shelley gifted four acres of land that were laid out as Boscombe Cliff Gardens before her death in June 1899. The foundation stone of Boscombe British and Foreign School was laid by Sir Percy Florence Shelley and Frederick Moser in August 1878.
Visiting Today
St Peter's Church remains the founding mother church of Bournemouth and draws literary pilgrims from around the world. A blue plaque commemorates Mary Shelley at the church. Another blue plaque, installed by Bournemouth Borough Council on 30 June 1985, marks the entrance to the former Boscombe Manor.
The family vault contains remarkable literary heritage: Mary Shelley, pioneer of science fiction; Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; and William Godwin, political philosopher and novelist. Whether or not Percy Bysshe Shelley's heart truly rests there, the grave has become a site of pilgrimage for admirers of the Romantic era's most famous family.