Skip to main content

Lewisham Collection: Grove Park Cemetery

Coming soon to Deceased Online are the burial and cremation records of the London Borough of Lewisham in South East London. As a taster of some of the fascinating people to be found in the collection, this week I look at the short life of circus horse trainer, Helmuth Barth.
Lewisham lies to the south of central London landmarks like Canary Wharf
Everyone at Deceased Online is very excited about the forthcoming release of records for the inner London Borough of Lewisham. Burial and cremation records will be added to the database throughout September and October this year. They include full digital scans of original burial and cremation registers (computerised records from the late 1990s), grave details including all those buried in each grave, and maps indicating the sections for each grave. The Lewisham Collection includes records from:
  • Brockley Cemetery (records from 1858 - 1999)
  • Ladywell Cemetery (which adjoins Brockley, records from 1858 - 1999)
  • Grove Park Cemetery (records from 1935 - 1999)
  • Hither Green Cemetery (records from 1873 - 1999)
  • Hither Green aka Lewisham Crematorium (records from 1956 - 1995)
Neighbouring Southwark to the west, Greenwich to the east and Bromley to the south, Lewisham is a vibrant part of the capital and has a rich history. If your ancestors lived in Deptford, Blackheath, Brockley, Catford, Forest Hill, Ladywell, New Cross, Sydenham or central Lewisham, you may find their burial or cremation records in the new collection. 
Lewisham Crematorium records can be searched at Deceased Online
 The first set of records to come online are from the Lewisham (Hither Green) Crematorium and Grove Park Cemetery. The latter was founded in 1935 as Deptford New Cemetery and is situated in Marvels Lane, Lee SE12 9PU. Designed by H. Morley Lawson, an engineer with the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford, the cemetery was opened in June 1935 on a hillside location.
"Sanger's amphitheatre - Evanion collection (1886)

Only 11 years after the cemetery had opened, Helmuth Barth was laid to rest there in a private grave. Helmuth, whose full name was Ludvig Arthur Detley Helmuth Barth had been born circa 1906 and travelled to England to work for the Great Carmo Circus with his stepfather, the celebrated Austrian horse trainer, Captain Emmerich Ankner. Although Ankner is believed to have left England in the late 1930s to work for Circus Busch in Germany, Helmuth remained here. He married Phyllis M. Agley in Middlesbrough in 1935 and took a position as a horse trainer with the renowned Sanger's Circus

From contemporary playbills, it appears that Helmuth was known professionally as Charles Barth. In 1946, Sanger's Circus was enjoying a successful run of shows across the South East of England, with Barth managing the performing "Liberty Horses". The troupe travelled to Essex in late September, during a period of heavy gales. Helmuth Barth died at Romford in September 1946 and was buried not far from his Brockley home of Drakefell Road on the 21st.
 
Close-up of the burial entry of Ludvig Arthur Detley Helmuth Barth
 
The full burial entry for Helmuth Barth, as it appears in the register

The release of the Lewisham Collection is a notable addition to Deceased Online's growing number of South London records. With scans from Southwark, Greenwich, Sutton and Merton already in the database, anyone with ancestors from this region should bookmark this resource. Lewisham is now the 14th London council to upload its data to the website. To find out more about Deceased Online's London coverage, read my recent blogpost, which provides a complete overview.

Are you, like us, excited about the new Lewisham Collection? Is your family from South London? Do let us know about your Lewisham ancestors and which records you are looking forward to exploring in the Comments Box below, and through our social media channels on Facebook and Twitter!
Sources:



Comments

  1. I'm really happy to see the South London cemeteries in this collection come online as Kent Online Parish Clerks prepares to publish the 1803-1918 transcripts of Bromley funeral trade of Dunn and Company who used the South London (and wider) cemeteries regularly. see http://downeopc.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/h-g-dunn-and-sons-limited-market-square.html for my blog

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for letting us know, Henry. Interesting blog!

      Delete
  2. Very excited for this! I've been trying to track down my 3rd great-grandfather James Carter. The James Carter that I have found buried in Greenwich Cemetery isn't the right one as my James died 23rd October 1901.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hope you are successful. Not all the Lewisham records have been uploaded, but watch this space for updates!

      Delete
  3. Where can I access burial or cremation records for 2003 for Grove Park area please?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

London's Spa Fields

Deceased Online has just uploaded around 114,000 burial records from Spa Fields in the modern London borough of Islington Spa Fields today, with the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer in the background Spa Fields Burial Ground became notorious in the 19th century for its overcrowded and insanitary conditions. Located in the parish of St James, Clerkenwell, the grave yard was not far from the ever-increasing City of London. Spa Fields was known also as Clerkenwell Fields and Ducking-pond Fields in the late 18th century, hinting at a dark side to what was then a summer evening resort for north Londoners. What would become a cemetery was a ducking pond in the rural grounds of a Spa Fields public house. It was here in 1683 that six children were drowned while playing on the ice. In his History of Clerkenwell (1865) William J. Pinks wrote that visitors, "came hither to witness the rude sports that were in vogue a century ago, such as duck-hunting, prize-fighting, bull-baiting

Haslar and Netley Military Hospital Cemeteries

Following on from last week's post, I'm looking further into Deceased Online 's latest collection of burials. These military burials were digitized in partnership with The National Archives .  Two notable institutions in the collection are Haslar Royal Navy Cemetery and the Royal Victoria Hospital in Netley. Both Haslar and Netley (as it was more commonly known) were Britain's foremost military hospitals during the bloodiest years of war in the western hemisphere The Royal Hospital Haslar and Clayhill Royal Navy Cemetery, Gosport, Hampshire The Royal Hospital Haslar dates from 1753. For over two hundred and fifty years Haslar served as one of main hospitals caring for sailors and marines of the Royal Navy and merchant services. Patients came from ships as well as from naval and seamen institutions in nearby Portsmouth and Gosport. The hospital closed as the last official military hospital in 2007. The Haslar Cemetery closed in April 1859 but the neighbouring Cl

Wakefield Collection: Cremation Records now available on Deceased Online

Records for both crematoria in Wakefield, Yorkshire have been added to the Deceased Online database Above: Pontefract Crematorium The two sets of crematoria records have been added to Deceased Online 's Wakefield Collection .  Wakefield district contains nineteen cemeteries and two crematoria. Many of the records go back to the mid and late 19th century when the cemeteries opened, and range across a wide geographical area. The full list of  Wakefield  cemeteries live on Deceased Online,  with opening dates in brackets,   is as follows: 1.  Altofts Cemetery  – Church Road, Altofts, Normanton  (1878)   2.  Alverthorpe Cemetery  – St Paul’s Drive, Alverthorpe, Wakefield  (registers from 1955) 3. Castleford Cemetery  – Headfield Road, Castleford  (1857) 4.  Crigglestone Cemetery  – Standbridge Lane, Crigglestone, Wakefield  (1882) 5. Featherstone Cemetery  – Cutsyke Road, North Featherstone  (1874) 6. Ferrybridge Cemetery  – Pontefract Road, Ferrybridge, P