Grave protectionSourced
The iron cage was keeping thieves out
Mortsafes were heavy iron protections used over graves in nineteenth-century Britain. They guarded against people stealing bodies for anatomy schools. Some were removed and reused once the remains were no longer useful to body snatchers.
The threat came from the living.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
Source and reuse details
Mortsafe · Wikimedia contributors
Adapted, summarized and translated from the source. Adapted text is also available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reviewed: 2026-10-05