Where is the oldest graveyard in South Yorkshire?

[Waltheof]

Any church that was a medieval parish church will of course have burials that go back into antiquity--and some of them replaced Anglo-Saxon churches that in turn were sometimes built on the sites of Romano-British pagan temples, so there may be burials hundreds of years old. However, they will have no memorial, since headstones or inscribed memorials for the dead were not common for people of middling or lower class until the 17th century.

 

You might do well to read Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard to see how the graves of peasants and working-class people were regarded in the 18th century. In medieval times (as reflected in the gravedigger scene in Hamlet) it was common for older graves to be disturbed in the process of digging new ones--often the disturbed bones were gathered up and put into a separate charnel house, jumbled up with all the others.

[wendy savage]

hiya the oldest grave yard i have heared of was on infirmiry road just by the car showroom octavia one i think,the grave yard is not there now i believe they re-laid the head stones and any person [whatever you wish] to another area dont know where perhaps you can contact the local church archives for more info on that.there used to be a very chapel and round the corner from there was a very small shop who used to take cigarette cards from you in exchange for cash .you may know where i mean the tram lines going towards hillsbrough and coming towards west bar just at the lights where langsett/netherthorpe and shalesmoor meet.good luck

[PopT]

I f we are talking about the Sheffield area and non Christian burials, there must be hundreds of burial mounds. On Eyam Moor there are reckoned to be 300. If you go to Hathersage church the road up the hill from the church cuts right through an ancient burial mound.

 

I hope thi is of interest. PopT