British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

This week, Deceased Online expands its Nottingham Collection with the addition of records from the early Victorian cemetery, Nottingham General. Enter Nottingham's General Cemetery from Canning Terrace and be prepared to step back in time to the late 19th century. Like many of the Victorian cemeteries in the Deceased Online collections, Nottingham General was designed to take the burden from parish churches whose graveyards had become overcrowded. Also, like many other Victorian cemeteries, this was administered by a newly-formed body, the Nottingham General Cemetery Company (1836) . The Grade II listed gatehouse , the chapel and the adjacent almshouses were built between 1836 and 1838 by S. S. Rawlinson . Burial registers were kept from the opening date of cemetery in 1838. Concerns were raised in the 1920s that this municipal cemetery was now overcrowded and from 1929 the cemetery was closed to new burials other than those who owned burial rights. Headstones in ...

This week Deceased Online completes its collection for the London Borough of Southwark with the addition of records from Honor Oak Crematorium   Honor Oak Crematorium In August this year, I wrote about the difficulties faced by the poor of Southwark and Camberwell in South London throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these people were later buried in the Victorian and Edwardian cemeteries of Camberwell Old, Camberwell New and Nunhead . The records of all three (including register scans, grave details and cemetery grave section maps) have been searchable on the Deceased Online database for several months. The last set of records to be added to the Southwark collection, for Honor Oak Crematorium , dates back to 1939 and covers 150,000 names. The crematorium, located next to Camberwell New cemetery, was designed by architects William Bell and Maurice Webb . The latter was the son of Sir Aston Webb , who owned the company which designed Camberwell New Cemete...

This week I dip into the new North-East Lincolnshire Collection and discover connections to the area's maritime past. Deceased Online's latest collection from North East Lincolnshire Council, Cemeteries and Crematoria features the internationally renowned fishing port of Grimsby and its neighbour, the popular holiday resort of Cleethorpes . The new collection covers 380,000 records (scans, grave details and maps) for over 170,000 burials and cremations at the following: Cleethorpes Cemetery, Beacon Avenue, Cleethorpes DN35 8EQ (1877-1999) Scartho Road Cemetery, Scartho Road, Grimsby DN33 2AL (1889-1994) Grimsby Crematorium, Weelsby Avenue, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire DN32 0BA (1954-1992)  "Fish Dock, Grimsby, Lincolnshire" by National Maritime Museum - Flickr: Fish Dock, Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fish_Dock,_Grimsby,_Lincolnshire.jpg#/media/File:Fish_Dock,_Grimsby,_Linc...

As we move towards Armistice Day 2015, in this week's post I look at some of the war dead of 1915 who feature in the Deceased Online database. Image: iStock This weekend sees Remembrance events and services across the country. Although we take this time to remember all those killed in conflict, many are using this opportunity to think of those who died 100 years ago in the first full year of the Great War. The UK Parliament will also be focusing on 1915 this year with its projection of falling poppies onto the Elizabeth Tower after dusk on Sunday. The Kent Cycling Corps enduring the mud and cold of the Western Front A few weeks ago we found the burial record of Private Claude Richmond (No. 1118), who died almost exactly 100 years ago on the 23rd September 1915. 22 year old Richmond, a gas engineer in civilian life, served with one of just nine battalions of the British Army Cyclist Corps. He was sent home after being injured while serving with the 1st Battalion Kent Cyc...

Now that all Lewisham Council's burial and cremation records have been uploaded to the Deceased Online database, I look at the twentieth century history of the cemeteries at Brockley and Hither Green and discover how hard the area was hit by air raids during the two world wars. Hither Green Hither Green Cemetery Hither Green continued through the end of the 19th century and into the 20th as a popular resting place for the people of South East London. As for many across Britain, life in the Lewisham area was transformed during the course of the First World War . War was declared on 4th August 1914 and on the 4th January 1915 the first official war burial at Hither Green took place. 53 year old Able Seaman Frank Finn RN 97447 of the HMS Pembroke died on the 29th at the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, Kent. Finn had previously served in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882-4 and left a widow, Jane Finn of 21 Medusa Road, Catford. His body was returned to South East London and he...

All 1,000,000 records of nearly 400,000 burials and cremations from 1858 to 1999 for the burial and cremation records of Lewisham Borough Council are now on the database.  This week we uploaded the final set of records from Lewisham Council . Among the new data on Deceased Online are the burial records of Hither Green Cemetery .  This includes details of 81,000 burials and nearly 250,000 records (data items). The last two cemeteries to be included for Lewisham are Hither Green and Brockley which have served large parts of South London since the mid-19th century. Hither Green Cemetery Hither Green Cemetery (formerly Lee Cemetery) Hither Green was opened in 1873 - 15 years after Brockley and Ladywell. Hither Green Cemetery is laid out next to Lewisham Crematorium - formerly, the Hither Green Crematorium (opened 1956), whose records are also in the database . The cemetery's official address is Verdant Lane in Grove Park. Originally known as "Lee Cemetery"...

This week Deceased Online adds burial records for the celebrated Brockley Cemetery in the London Borough of Lewisham     We are very pleased that the records for the cemetery of Brockley being launched on the database this week. In this blog, I explore Brockley's Victorian past. Brockley Chapel and Memorial With the addition of the Brockley and Hither Green records (coming soon), there are now nearly 400,000 burials and 1 million records for Lewisham Council on the Deceased Online website .  As with its neighbouring sister cemetery, Ladywell , Brockley was opened in 1858. Originally named "Deptford Cemetery" , the site was designed by William Morphew of Tinkler & Morphew after the parish churchyard of St Paul's became overcrowded. Deptford Burial Board bought the plot next to that of Lewisham Burial Board's (Ladywell) and appointed the same architects. Up to the 1940s, the sites were separated by a low wall. The two sites have both b...

This week, Deceased Online adds to its Lewisham Collection with records from Ladywell Cemetery. Dating from 1858, the cemetery's registers should prove interesting for anyone with 19th or 20th century connections to South East London. Read on to discover the interesting entries I found while exploring the Ladywell records.    Ladywell Cemeter y was opened in 1858 as "Lewisham Cemetery" by Lewisham Burial Board. Today, the cemetery's official address is Ladywell Road, Ladywell Se13 7hy . Confusingly, Brockley Cemetery was laid out two months earlier in an adjacent plot, but by Deptford Burial Board. Today, Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries are closely linked, but until 1948 they were divided by a low wall. Today this can still be identified by a bank. In 1965, with changes in London's local government, both cemeteries came under the control of the Borough of Lewisham.  Deceased Online will be adding Brockley records shortly. Both cemeteries are supported...