In 1833 the Mayor of Newcastle, Henry Bell, was requested by many of the town’s leading citizens including John Dobson, architect, and Richard Grainger, property developer, to call a meeting ‘to form and establish, for the use of town, a General Cemetery a measure for which the crowded state of the church yards has long rendered necessary’.
The western half of the cemetery was consecrated by the Bishop of Durham on 11th November 1836 and declared open for burials five days later. On 9th December Margaret Redford Hoy, the 14-year-old daughter of a Newcastle grocer, was the first to be buried in the cemetery. Her grave, in the non-conformist section, was unmarked.
The cemetery went on fulfilling its function undisturbed for well over a century. It escaped serious damage during World War Two but a few headstones to the east side of the Middle Walk are said to have been hit by enemy aircraft fire.
The western half of the cemetery was consecrated by the Bishop of Durham on 11th November 1836 and declared open for burials five days later. On 9th December Margaret Redford Hoy, the 14-year-old daughter of a Newcastle grocer, was the first to be buried in the cemetery. Her grave, in the non-conformist section, was unmarked.
The cemetery went on fulfilling its function undisturbed for well over a century. It escaped serious damage during World War Two but a few headstones to the east side of the Middle Walk are said to have been hit by enemy aircraft fire.
Burials are still taking place in the cemetery and at the last count nearly 25,000 people have been buried there since the cemetery opened. Notable personalities in recent times buried in the cemetery include Sid Chaplin, the author of stories and poems set in the North East which continue to be popular died in 1986 and Julia Darling another popular North East writer who died in 2005.
No comments:
Post a Comment