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sheffield general cemetery

Female Figure Sculpture Memorials and the Non-Conformist Chapel Cemetery at Dusk

And here and there were graves of recent date,
With headstones new, or granite monument;
And chaplets, with flowers unfaded yet,
That told of tears unshed, and grief unspent.

(extract from 'City of the Dead' inspired by the General Cemetery
John Hall 1877)

Memorial Tombs Furniss Family Gravestone Avenue in Consecrated Section


information

The Sheffield General Cemetery was was opened in 1836 and the older nonconformist part of the cemetery comprising of six acres was designed by the local architect Samuel Worth (1779-1870).

The buildings in this section are a mixture of Greek Doric and Egyptian styles. The main entrance lodge is built directly over the Porter Brook possibly alluding to the crossing of the river Styx in classical mythology. The lodge originally housed a grave digger and warden.

Designed on a North facing hillside incorporating an old quarry for burial depth the landscaping included gently rising ground planted with deciduous trees. The landscaping was created under the management of Robert Marnock who had worked on Sheffield Botanical Gardens across the valley in 1834. Many of the original trees remain and there are several large weeping holly and ash.

Two curving rows of catacombs are built into the hillside but few were actually used for burial. This may be because in 1836 a catacomb was very expensive compared to a grave plot. One of the more famous graves is that of Samuel Holberry a revolutionary chartist active in 19th Century Britain. He died on a treadmill at York Prison aged only 26.

A further eight acres of Anglican consecrated ground was added in 1848 with a gothic style chapel designed by William Flockton (1804-64) and Son. Sadly most of this part of the cemetery was cleared to create a park during the 1970s but some of the stones remain built into pathways around the site.

The whole cemetery is a conservation area and all the buildings as well as several monuments in the cemetery are listed. The Friends of Sheffield General Cemetery look after the site which was bought by the City Council in 1979. They have a website with lots of information about the cemetery. click here to visit!


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