British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

Deceased Online this week launches a new collection from the historic industrial city of Salford  Agecroft Cemetery, Salford Salford is renowned as one of the world's first industrial cities. Its proud industrial history includes pioneering social support for workers, including the introduction of the world's first free public library. As a settlement, Salford dates back to the Neolithic Age, and Ordsall Hall , a haunted Tudor house is evidence of its existence as a village on the River Irwell. By the 18th century, Salford had a small population. However, this was soon to change with the Industrial Revolution. By 1801, the area was home to  29,495 individuals, many of whom worked in the expanding cotton and silk factories or on the docks of the Manchester Ship Canal . A hundred years later in 1901, thanks to the local textile industry, this had grown to  296,210.  Sadly the early 20th century saw a decline in Salford's industry as a result of overseas compe...

While the next cemetery data is being uploaded to the database, this week I thought I'd look into the fascinating concept of "taphophilia" - or a fondness for cemeteries.  Recently, I discovered that some of our Twitter followers describe themselves as "taphophiles" . I have heard a few terms to describe those of us who are interested in old cemeteries, but the word "taphophilia" seems one of the loveliest. The term comes from the Greek “taph” - for "tomb" - and “philia” - meaning "strong love or admiration". Although chiefly used to describe a love of cemeteries , the word is also associated with a fondness for funerals, epitaphs and the art of gravestones, monuments and tombs . Poets, novelists, lyricists and dramatists have long lauded the cemetery. Memorable literary scenes include Hamlet standing by the graveside with Yorrick's skull, the St Pancras gravediggers in A Tale of Two Cities, and the lines from The Sm...

Deceased Online features a wide range of registers and burial transcriptions. Previously in this blog, I've highlighted some of the Scottish collections, particularly monumental inscriptions and how they can be used to tell you more about your ancestors. In this week's post, I show how best to use one of the most detailed English collections in the database for your family history research. Eastway House, Blandford Forum. An unusually decorative facade, by Blandford standards, for this house on East Street, with a curvy parapet, plus urns and balls. Copyright Derek Harper. One of the first set of registers to be digitized on the Deceased Online database back in 2010 was that of Blandford Forum Town Council in Dorset. Blandford is a pretty market town located 10 miles north west of Wimborne Minster, 16 miles north of Dorchester, and 104 miles from London. Although much of the town was rebuilt after a fires in the 17th and 18th century, the town dates from Roman times. Th...

As the local council officially announces the launch of our Lincoln Collection, I look back at the social changes that led to the opening of the city's first cemetery in 1856. The Lincoln Collection on Deceased Online incorporates over 140,000 records dating back to the 1850s. Of the five cemeteries in the collection, three - Canwick Road, Eastgate, and Newport - date from 1856. But Lincoln's councillors had identified a need for a cemetery almost decade earlier. Gravestones in Lincoln's first cemetery at Canwick Road On the 12th November 1846, the Lincolnshire Chronicle reported that the Cemetery Committee worried that: "it appeared to be an impossibility to form a Cemetery in Lincoln at present, in consequence of the expense and trouble which would arise. Instead the Council proposed to focus on clearing the "nuisances now existing in the town" and to pass a bill for ""sanatory [sic] improvement".  One of the key difficultie...

Deceased Online completes digitisation project for Bolton Council Completing the digitisation project of Bolton Council, 136,000 cremation records of Overdale Crematorium have been added to the database . From today all the records from 1954-1993 will be available to search. The plot of what would become Overdale Crematorium (1950) Overdale Crematorium at Heaton was opened in September 1954 by Lord Horder of the Cremation Society. Its foundation stone was laid by George Sykes, who had served as a Conservative Mayor of Bolton from 1931 to 1932. Sykes was born in Hull in 1874 and began work in a drapery business. He eventually became a director of Hampsons confectioners. A great champion of parks and open spaces, Sykes also took an interest in cremation, and was a keen advocate for the new crematorium. The idea for a crematorium in Bolton emerged as far back as 1938, but was delayed by the Second World War. After he died on 5 March 1958, George Sykes was cremated at...

Today marks the 102 nd anniversary of Britain’s third worst mining disaster, which took place on 21 st December 1910 in the parish of Westhoughton, around five miles from Bolton, Lancashire. Four days before Christmas, on Wednesday 21 st December 1910, 889 miners arrived for work at the No. 3 and 4 Bank Pit of the Hulton Colliery Company in Westhoughton. Known as the Pretoria Pit, the mine operated five seams. No 3 Pit worked the Plodder, Yard and Three Quarters Mines. No 4 Pit worked the Trencherbone, Three Quarters and Arley Mines, and was connected to the No 3 shaft at the level of the Yard Mine. At 7.50 a.m. a huge explosion swept through the Yard Mine, killing all but two of the men and boys who were working there. The shaft to No 4 and ventilation fans were damaged, causing access problems and danger of gas. There were only two survivors in the Yard Mine, Joe Staveley and William Davenport, who were found alive by the rescue team. In the wake of the blast, afterdamp,...

We are really excited about all the new data we’re adding from the cemeteries and crematorium in the Bolton Council area. As you may have seen on our Facebook and Twitter pages, last week we uploaded 116,000 burial records for Tonge Cemetery, which dates back to 1856. This week, we have added nearly 95,000 records from Heaton Cemetery, which opened in 1879. As usual, included with the records are all the register scans and detailed maps of grave locations. For Tonge Cemetery, we’ve also included over 3,000 photographs of memorials and headstones which we estimate will represent some 15,000 of those buried. It’s interesting that the ratio of headstones and memorials to the total number is so small; only 10% of burials are acknowledged in this way. So the inclusion of a detailed map in the data is essential for those trying to find most of the graves. The map for Tonge Cemetery show how the cemetery designated specific areas for separate Christian denominations, with ...

  This week we look at maritime and military memorials in Charlton Cemetery Established in 1855 as a ‘Gentleman’s Cemetery'. Charlton largely retains its original Victorian layout. For a relatively small cemetery, Charlton has a high number of notable and unique memorials. Amongst those interred is Sir John Maryon-Wilson (1802-1876), who, as Lord of the Manor of Hampstead, helped to preserve Hampstead Heath for future generations. Curiously, the very fine Hampstead Cemetery – the data for which is also in the database – features a wide range of well known politicians and establishment figures, but obviously Maryon-Wilson had moved south of the river. Perhaps the most striking monument belongs to Jemima Ayley (1825-1860), whose canopied memorial features an effigy lying above a vault which contained a table and chairs for visitors. The tomb of Jemima Ayley The graves of Royal Naval personnel and merchant seamen are unsurprising for a cemetery so near to the...

Continuing our coverage of cemeteries in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, this week we focus on Eltham Cemetery Eltham Cemetery and Crematorium (or ‘Falconwood’) is relatively modern, with the cemetery section having opened in 1935. Darren Beach’s excellent pocket-sized London Cemeteries book [1] describes it as “one of London’s flattest cemeteries, especially compared with the rolling hills of Greenwich. Given the terrain, it’s not surprisingly based on a grid pattern, with trees only along the paths and edges.” Eltham Chapel The cemetery features some interesting memorials and Beach highlights a “half-size figure of a man dressed in flying gear commemorating an airman killed in 1938. It’s not easy to miss – his outfit looks more like a post-apocalyptic radioactivity suit than anything else.” Memorial to L.A/C. Ernest Francis Bennett, who lost his life when flying solo from the No 12 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School, Prestwick The wreckage of th...