Paupers grave City Road

[crookesey]

There would not have been much left, of the loved-ones buried there, jim tbh.

 

The remains would not have been just "left", when the graveyard was cleared, etc, they would have been exhumed, and then interrred, respectfully, in a common grave.

 

You are probably right on both counts PT. I spent around 15 years working near to the General Cemetery on Cemetery Road (I wonder how they thought of the name). Someone told me that they used to dig a very deep hole and then brick line it. After the first coffin went in subsequent ones were kept away from the one below by placing corner pieces in the brick work. So as the coffins and bodies decomposed everything fell to the bottom leaving a huge void area, hence the collapse of many parts of the cemetery.

 

A guy at the old S & E funeral department told me that when they had the contract to exhume bodies from the bottom part of the cemetery that they found one coffin in perfect condition. On opening the lid they were amazed to find a man's body in absolutely perfect condition, the grave was well over one hundred years old, the strange thing was that there was a skeleton of a very young child lying at the man's feet. The guy said that the grave was very wet and that he thought the moisture had preserved the body, it didn't do the same for the child though.

 

The last burial rules relating to individual graves were that the last coffin lid was no less than two feet from the covering stone.

[retep]

Doing a bit of digging around, General Cemetery has one of the deepest single grave plots in the country with 97 paupers.

[linda2]

hi all, my sister age 9 weeks was buried in tinsley park in 1951 and is buried with 5 other babies and an old man

apparantly he was to look after them

linda2

[Plain Talker]

You are probably right on both counts PT. I spent around 15 years working near to the General Cemetery on Cemetery Road (I wonder how they thought of the name). Someone told me that they used to dig a very deep hole and then brick line it. After the first coffin went in subsequent ones were kept away from the one below by placing corner pieces in the brick work. So as the coffins and bodies decomposed everything fell to the bottom leaving a huge void area, hence the collapse of many parts of the cemetery.

 

A guy at the old S & E funeral department told me that when they had the contract to exhume bodies from the bottom part of the cemetery that they found one coffin in perfect condition. On opening the lid they were amazed to find a man's body in absolutely perfect condition, the grave was well over one hundred years old, the strange thing was that there was a skeleton of a very young child lying at the man's feet. The guy said that the grave was very wet and that he thought the moisture had preserved the body, it didn't do the same for the child though.

 

The last burial rules relating to individual graves were that the last coffin lid was no less than two feet from the covering stone.

 

Thanks crookesey.

 

I wanted to post more, about my memories of the graveyard St Marys, at Bramall Lane being reworked, to accommodate the dual carriageway etc, in the late 60's/ early 70's. however, my stupid, stupid PC is playing up bigtime, and crashing left-right-and-centre.