Cemeteries Re-opening

As lockdown eases, more cemeteries across the UK are reopening to visitors

Cemeteries have begun to reopen across the country as Covid-19 restrictions are relaxed. Although some cemeteries have been open in past weeks to grave owners, it has not been possible for general visitors or family historians to spend time in these calm spaces.

Many of the cemeteries whose registers feature in the Deceased Online database are once again open to general visitors. These include Highgate Cemetery, where a notice of re-opening was posted on the gate of the East Cemetery last week (see above image).

Others that are now open include Islington and St Pancras Cemetery in East Finchley, and West Norwood Cemetery in the London borough of Lambeth.

Cemeteries that remain closed include Lister Lane Cemetery in Halifax, Yorkshire.

All Bolton Council Cemeteries are now open to the public between 9am and 8pm every day. Visitors are reminded to observe social distancing guidelines at all times.

Highgate Cemetery posted the following on its website on 3 June 2020:

** Grave owner visiting times **

Highgate Cemetery is open for visits by grave owners only. Please bring your pass. Visiting hours coming up: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 2-5pm. You will need to phone when you get here to be let in. ALSO Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 June 10am to 5pm.

** Other visitors **

Highgate Cemetery East will be open on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 June. Booking essential. See Visit > East Cemetery. Visiting hours may change without notice. Please check back here before you visit just in case!

If you are planning to visit your ancestors or a local graveyard, it is recommended that you check with the relevant cemetery or burial authority in order to confirm their current arrangements.

Do let us know whether you have been able to visit any cemeteries. How did you find the experience? Contact us in the box below or on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Comments

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...

New Maps Online for St Peter's Cemetery and Churchyard

New data for Scotland will be appearing on Deceased Online over the next couple of weeks. Here we give you an insight into our holdings on the cemeteries of Aberdeen. The ‘Granite City’, as Scotland's third largest city is known, features strongly in the Deceased Online database . You can search around 248,000 records from nine cemeteries and burial grounds, including St Nicholas Churchyard, Trinity Churchyard, Nigg Cemetery, John Knox Churchyard, St Peter's Cemetery - linked with Spital Churchyard, St Clement's Churchyard, Old Machar Churchyard, Grove Cemetery and Nellfield Cemetery. We have just added detailed grave location maps of Spitak (aka St Peter’s) Churchyard and St Peter’s Cemetery. Located in the north of the city, these two cemeteries form one vast graveyard. The Deceased Online database contains registers, which date from 1767, for over 160,000 burials. Besides the registers are the Dues Books. For the earliest dates these cover the date of burial...

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, Nort...

British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

Search This Blog