Hi all,
just been reading about the old graveyard behind the dog track off penistone road and was wondering if anyone knew of any really old graveyards in our area.
I personally find them very interesting and would love to find a really old one, I think the oldest gravestone I have seen to date was around 1623 and that was in Castleton or Bakewell I'm not quite sure which.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
thanks
Taylor1

I think Handsworth (St Marys ??) dates back to 1505 or something like that.

St Michael's church in the "old village" in Rossington near Doncaster dates back to the 1100's so you could probably find some old graves there.

st marys at ecclesfield,theres some 17th century graves there,and its a lovely building,im not a churchy person, but its a a lovely place

There is always the hill top chapel grave yard opposite the police station.
Then there is the old Attercliffe grave yard with some of the victims of the sheffield flood. opposite worsop road. it used to be behind the old church so if you just walk up along the up rihjt head stones you come to the old grave yard.
there is another old grave yard, have you tried the general cemetary yet, you will not be dissapointed.

Hi all,
just been reading about the old graveyard behind the dog track off penistone road and was wondering if anyone knew of any really old graveyards in our area.
I personally find them very interesting and would love to find a really old one, I think the oldest gravestone I have seen to date was around 1623 and that was in Castleton or Bakewell I'm not quite sure which.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
thanks
Taylor1

What about the city general on Cemetery Road?

What about Heeley Church on Gleadless Road.

You may have difficulty trying to date a graveyard from tombstones.
A lot of headstones were destroyed during the Civil War and more have been removed to make way for more burials. Look at Parish registers for the earliest dates of burials.

Thanks all, I will try some of those.... I'm not a weirdo or anything:loopy: I just find graveyards quite serene places to be and I can spend hours looking at the headstones. I have the weekend free so I may go for a drive around.
Thanks again

Thanks all, I will try some of those.... I'm not a weirdo or anything:loopy: I just find graveyards quite serene places to be and I can spend hours looking at the headstones. I have the weekend free so I may go for a drive around.
Thanks again
I used to do the same, it's very interesting.
If you make a note of names off gravestones and type them into the computer, sometimes it throws up some interesting facts about the person, like which war they served in etc.

At the rear of St Mary's at Ecclesfield, there is someone buried there off Nelsons flagship!.

Hi all,
just been reading about the old graveyard behind the dog track off penistone road and was wondering if anyone knew of any really old graveyards in our area.
I personally find them very interesting and would love to find a really old one, I think the oldest gravestone I have seen to date was around 1623 and that was in Castleton or Bakewell I'm not quite sure which.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
thanks
Taylor1
Forgotten what its called but the big one off Eccleshall road is a nice place to walk in and sad that so much of it is VERY overgrown?

The church at Carlton in Lindrick has been thetre for over 1000 years but I doubt the gravestones will be legible!

Definately a necrophilliac alert.
If you've nothing sensible to add to the thread, then don't bother!

How about the old Beauchief Abbey down Abby Lane.
There must be some old ones there.

The 'big cemetery off Ecclesall Road' and the 'City General cemetery' on Cemetery Road are the same as the General Cemetery - General in the sense of 'non consecrated/non Anglican' in its early years. A fascinating place, but it only opened in 1836.

St Nicholas's at High Bradfield has some 17th century grave stones.

A great place to go walking from as well.:)

Hugh

Hi all,
I went to the Wardsend cemetary at the back of Owlerton races today and I was really shocked at the state of the place, it's really saddening to think that places of rest could be left to ruin like that. I have been there once before, maybe 3 or 4 years ago and it wasn't good then but I am amazed that nothing has been done about the appalling state of the place, there was even one on entering ( a tomb of some description ) that looked to have been smashed into, to what avail I do not know. I must say it really upset me as most of the burials here seem to be those of really young children and it is impossible to see the majority as they are simply over run with weeds and bushes. I am aware that the last burial here was in 1977 ( or so I have been told ) but i should hate to think that when I die that my place of rest would be treated with such disregard. Does anyone know why this cemetary has been left like this, and does anyone know what happened to the church that was once there.
Thanks
taylor1

I disagree - cemeteries look absolutely wonderful when they're neglected and overgrown. More often than not they simply become reclaimed by nature and end up as far more interesting places than the regimented, formal and largely characterless 'cared-for' cemeteries.

As an added bonus, the Wardsend cemetery is a great place to take band photos, particularly if you're a little on the 'gothic' side.... ;)

Beauchef Abbey has gravestones in Latin from c17th Century. Many of the outlying villages round Sheffield such as Bakewell, Hope, Carlton In Lindrick (as mentioned) and such like have stones going back even further.

As for Sheffield itself some of the oldest are no longer used, such as the Cathedral (which is prob. the oldest with the graves not moved). The Peace gardens was a churchyard previously, but as I recall the graves/coffins/remains whatever were reinterred to City Rd. St Georges top of Brook Hill has a few old stones left, but not that many.

The vast majority of the municipal cemeteries have been visited by the council vandals in the last year or so and are pretty much wrecked now.

St Georges top of Brook Hill has a few old stones left, but not that many.
.

St Georges isrelatively "young" as churches go. it's only the same age as St Mary's Bramall Lane (SMBL) - they actually had the same architect- they were built around 1830/ 50 (was it 1852?) or so. Therefore they aren't much more than a century and a half old. so you won't find graves that are that old in them.

SMBL's graveyard was also cleared considerably in the late sixties/ early seventies for the dual carriageway, however the gravestones were relaid as a path in the redeveloped courtyard area outside the church building.

I believe St Mary's, at Ecclesfield is a good five centuries old, that might be a good start? or if you want to travel further afield, the church in Clowne, NE Derbys (St Johns) definitely dates back at least as far as about 1183 another possible lead?

PT

St Georges isrelatively "young" as churches go. it's only the same age as St Mary's Bramall Lane (SMBL) - they actually had the same architect- they were built around 1830/ 50 (was it 1852?) or so.[SNIP]PT

The four 'Million Act' Churches with opening dates:

St George's, Brookhill 1825
Christ Church, Attercliffe 1826
St Philip's, Shalesmoor 1828
St Mary's Bramall Lane 1830

Hugh

Regarding Ecclesfield church: Take a look at THIS (http://www.spick.co.uk/church1.htm)site.
It is really interesting.

Mike, (I know the webmaster) Has done an excellent job with this.

The four 'Million Act' Churches with opening dates:

St George's, Brookhill 1825
Christ Church, Attercliffe 1826
St Philip's, Shalesmoor 1828
St Mary's Bramall Lane 1830

Hugh

thanks for those dates, hugh, I wasn't *too* far out in my reckonings, I just came down on the side of them being 20-or-so years "newer" than they are.

(are you saying that CCA and SPS were also by the same architect? I have a pic of attercliffe church, and it is quite similar to SMBL and SGB)

PT

My source is Canon Odom's Memorials of Sheffield (1922). The architects he names are:

St George's - Woodhead & Hurst, Doncaster
Christ Church - J Taylor, Leeds
St Philip's - Mr Taylor, Leeds (presumably the same as for Christ Church)
St Mary's - J.Potter, Lichfield

Odom quotes an inscription at St Mary's which says that the 'resident' architect was 'R.Potter'. I have found some other references to Joseph and Robert Potter as the architects.

Hugh:)

I disagree - cemeteries look absolutely wonderful when they're neglected and overgrown. More often than not they simply become reclaimed by nature and end up as far more interesting places than the regimented, formal and largely characterless 'cared-for' cemeteries.

As an added bonus, the Wardsend cemetery is a great place to take band photos, particularly if you're a little on the 'gothic' side.... ;)

Not exactly what it was built for, but whatever takes your fancy nowadays!

you are a weirdo...you know you are hahahaha

Get off this site you gatecrasher:D

I disagree - cemeteries look absolutely wonderful when they're neglected and overgrown. More often than not they simply become reclaimed by nature and end up as far more interesting places than the regimented, formal and largely characterless 'cared-for' cemeteries.

As an added bonus, the Wardsend cemetery is a great place to take band photos, particularly if you're a little on the 'gothic' side.... ;)

Totally disagree look at the war cemeteries in France, if you think they would look better neglected, we are on different planets

I used to do the same, it's very interesting.
If you make a note of names off gravestones and type them into the computer, sometimes it throws up some interesting facts about the person, like which war they served in etc.

At the rear of St Mary's at Ecclesfield, there is someone buried there off Nelsons flagship!.

Quite right. It is Alexander John Scott who was Admiral Nelson's Chaplain aboard HMS Victory. He was on board at the Battle of Trafalgar and Nelson died in his arms. Scott's daughter Margaret, married Alfred Gatty, firstly Rev. Alfred Gatty, curate of Bellerby Moor, then Rev. Alfred Gatty DD, vicar of Ecclesfield for 63 years. The Gatty family is famous in literary circles, as talented as The Brontes of Haworth. Not quite so famous, as their books were not bodice ripping as those of The Brontes. One of their daughters, Juliana, invented the name 'The Brownies', a name adopted by Baden-Powell for the junior Girl Guides.

Look at the church from the front. Take the right path to the rear of the church. Past the stone sarcophagus until you reach the door to the crypt. Look to your right and you will see the grave. The Gatty grave is at the side of the gate leading to the former vicarage (now a private dwelling). Just over the wall there are the Gatty dogs graves, complete with headstones.

In nearby Priory Road stands The Gatty Memorial Hall, a lasting tribute to the Reverend Doctor Gatty, erected shortly after his death in 1901, and paid for by public donations. My maternal grandmother paid three old pennies (3d) each week to the building fund.

Bakewell is Saxon in Origin with 9th Century Saxon Crosses in the Graveyard. Eyam also has a Saxon cross so both are quite old :)
Loversall is also a similar age.

I think the oldest graves might be in Conisbrough, just south of Doncaster. There's a church there that dates from the 9th century, it predates the castle, and its still in use. Conisbrough's got a lovely old church and a restored castle but no-one knows about it for some reason. It's where the book Ivanhoe is set.

How about Norton Church. The graves there go back a long time.

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.

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

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