Wikipedia

Nottingham General Cemetery

Nottingham General Cemetery
The cemetery gatehouse and almshouses of 1837-40
Map
Interactive map of Nottingham General Cemetery
Details
Established1836
Location
Nottingham
CountryEngland
Coordinates52°57′28″N 1°9′32″W / 52.95778°N 1.15889°W / 52.95778; -1.15889
Owned byNottingham City Council
Size18 acres (7.3 ha)
No. of interments150,000+

Nottingham General Cemetery is a place of burial in Nottingham, England which is Grade II listed.[1]

History

[edit]

The Nottingham General Cemetery Company received Royal Assent for their Act of Parliament on 19 May 1836. The company was founded with 440 of £10 each in 1836. A committee of twenty-four directors, which oversaw the cemetery, was chosen annually by the shareholders. The initial committee included the first mayor of the reformed Corporation, Thomas Wakefield. The company acquired 8 acres (3.2 ha) of sloping sandy land north of Tollhouse Hill from the Nottingham Corporation and, wealthy Quaker grocer, Samuel Fox. Around £5,800 was spent on purchasing and developing the site. The directors elected a management committee and appointed a superintendent and other staff, who were based at the company's offices at the cemetery.][2] The initial site comprised 14 acres (5.7 ha) but in 1845 it was extended by 4 acres (1.6 ha).

In 1837–40, the cemetery gatehouse with almshouses was constructed to the designs of the architect Samuel Sutton Rawlinson at the top of Sion Hill, now Canning Circus. The wrought iron gates were made by Falconer and Company of Derby.[3] Rawlinson also provided two mortuary chapels, one for Anglicans in 1840, and the other for dissenters in ca. 1850.

The laying out of the cemetery was completed by 1838[4] with a single grave available for 7s 6d (equivalent to £43 in 2023),[5] a private grave the property of the purchaser in perpetuity from £2. 2s (equivalent to £239 in 2023)[5]and upwards, and a brick grave or vault from £10. 10s (equivalent to £1,194 in 2023)[5] and upwards.

In 1923 the Medical Officer of Health expressed concern about the future of the cemetery and a bill was taken to Parliament to prevent new burials except in existing family plots.

After the Second World War, the cemetery company went into liquidation, and after a period of ownership by the Crown, the freehold passed to Nottingham City Council in 1956. The mortuary chapels were both in a state of disrepair and were demolished in 1958.

War graves

[edit]

The cemetery contains the war graves of 336 Commonwealth service personnel and one Belgian war grave from World War I, and of 10 from World War II. Most of the dead were from wartime military hospitals in the city. Over 100 of the graves from the first war are in a war graves plot where an adjoining screen wall lists the names.[6] The Commonwealth War Graves Commission continue to maintain the graves.

Notable interments

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Historic England. "General Cemetery (Grade II) (1001487)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  2. ^ Elliott, Paul (2021). "Death, landscape and memorialisation in Victorian urban society: Nottingham's General Cemetery (1837) and Church Cemetery (1856)". Transactions of the Thoroton Society. 124: 146.
  3. ^ Harwood, Elain (2008). Pevsner Architectural Guides. Nottingham. Yale University Press. p. 130. ISBN 9780300126662.
  4. ^ "Nottingham General Cemetery". Nottingham Journal. England. 13 July 1838. Retrieved 20 July 2019 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ a b c UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  6. ^ "Nottingham General Cemetery". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Archived from the original on 25 May 2024. Retrieved 31 December 2024.