A guide to burial grounds in Leamington Spa

Leamington
History Group

LEAMINGTON SPA

DISCOVERED
SLIDE SHOW

A guide
to burial
grounds in
Leamington
1

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

About this slideshow

Locating burial grounds and individual graves in Leamington presents difﬁculties for
local and family historians not least because for a period in the nineteenth century
there were more than half-a-dozen separate burial grounds, most of them attached to
Nonconformist places of worship and set aside for the sole use of the members of that
particular congregation. This presentation shows the various burial grounds that have
existed with notes about their history and current status.

2

1843 Map of
Leamington
Showing locations of
the burial grounds then
in existence
Warwick Street
Spencer Street
All Saints’ church
Mill Street
New Street
George Street

3

All Saints’ churchyard
Historically and from the earliest times, the burial ground
surrounding the parish church was the only place of burial
serving the village of Leamington Priors. As the village
went through a period of major expansion in the early
nineteenth century, the old parish graveyard was extended
down to what is now called Gloucester Street. In 1825 the
churchyard was again extended and burial vaults to
accommodate 180 sealed coffins were constructed under the
North Transept of All Saints’. By 1830 the area of the church
yard was again extended but burial space was clearly
running out. By 1838 there was no space for further
interments. It is probable that there were also some
intramural interments under the floor of the original
church. The ledger stone marking the entrance to the Willes
family vault is now hidden beneath the 19th century wood
block flooring. In 1850 it was reported that there had been
310 burials in the church yard in the previous twelve years
and it was in most respects full. Burials in family vaults
and graves continued in the parish churchyard up until 1855
but All Saints had little alternative other than to secure
another piece of ground as an addition to the church yard
and anticipating the need for more burial space All Saints’
purchased a suitable plot in nearby New Street.The
churchyard surrounding the parish church is closed for
burials and there are no remaining headstones.
4

New Street cemetery - Anglican
The first burials in the New Street burial ground were
in 1838. The land was given by Matthew Wise and
dedicated on 21 May 1838 by the Bishop of Worcester.
Construction work was funded through the church rate
which was paid by dissenters as well as by churchgoers. Historically, no dissenting Minister was
allowed to officiate at burials in any of the burial
grounds set up by the Established Church and this fact
led to many of the Nonconformist congregations
throughout the land opening their own cemeteries. The
New Street cemetery soon proved not to be large
enough to cope with the number of burials being
conducted by the Parish Church clergy. In the first ten
years of its existence it was reported that there had
been more than two thousand interments in this grave
yard and that four and sometimes five burials were
being made in a single grave nine feet deep. Some of the
footpaths had to be given up for use as burial plots. A
re-alignment of New Street in 1958 led to the
exhumation of a number of graves on the edge of the
cemetery and these remains were re-interred in the All
Saints section of the Brunswick Street cemetery in
March 1958. Most of the headstones in New Street
have been removed over the years.
5

Spencer Street - Congregational
This chapel was built in 1836 and the land at the rear of
the building was laid out and consecrated as a burial
ground. The first interment was that of Mary Langham on
16 March 1836 and the burial ground remained in use for
the next thirty-five years during which period there were
381 burials of members of the church. The burial ground
was subsequently transformed into a Garden of Rest in
1928 and was grassed over. The headstones were moved to
the perimeter of the plot and a sundial was erected in the
centre of the lawn in commemoration of the twenty young
men from the church who had given their lives in the Great
War.
In 1968 the area became a car park for the church and for
the adjacent Loft Theatre. The whole area has now been
paved and the last of the old headstones have been
removed. So far as can be ascertained, the human remains
were exhumed at some date but it has not been possible to
ascertain where they were re-interred .When the chapel was
built, catacombs were constructed under the building and a
number of interments were made in these vaults in the
succeeding years. Among those interred in these vaults were
Arthur and Harriette Pope infant children of Alfred Pope
the church’s first Minister. Following the deconsecration of
the church, the human remains in the vault were exhumed
in 2005 and reinterred in Leamington Cemetery.
6

Warwick Street -Baptist
In 1830 the local Baptists acquired
a vegetable plot on the corner of
Satchwell Street and Warwick
Street and on it built a chapel
designed by William Thomas. Part
of the plot was reserved as a
burial ground. In 1892 a new
vestry and Sunday school was
built over part of the burial
ground at the rear of the building
and the bodies of those interred
there were exhumed and reinterred in Leamington Cemetery
in February 1894. Subsequent
development led to the wholesale
demolition of the entire site and
the Royal Priors shopping mall
now occupies the site.

7

Mill Street

Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion
Another non conformist chapel was opened in August
1829 on the corner of Mill Street and Leam Terrace and
this too had a burial ground attached to it. This building
had a number of incarnations as a Proprietary Chapel
and as a place of worship for Lady Huntingdon’s
Connexion before being taken over by the Presbyterians.
The church was demolished in 1902 when the Urquhart
Hall was built on the site as a parish hall for All Saints’.
Several members of the Flavel family are buried here
including William Flavel the inventor of the famous
Leamington Kitchener cooking range. His father John
was the founder of the family business.The cemetery is
closed to burials, its current ownership is unknown. The
remaining headstones have been moved to the edges of
the graveyard which is secured by a wrought iron fence
and locked gates with no public access.

8

George Street - Roman Catholic

This photograph shows
(to the right) grave slabs and the
large cross mentioned by Turnerelli

The brass memorial plate
from Patrick Bisshopp’s
ledger stone is now fixed to
the wall in St Peter’s church
in Dormer Place

The first Roman Catholic church in Leamington opened in
George Street in October 1828 and was largely financed by
Major Patrick Bisshopp and his wife Elizabeth. Bisshopp
had served as a Commander at the Battle of Waterloo and
was a major benefactor to local Roman Catholic causes.
The church was dedicated to Saint Peter and an area of
adjoining land on the corner of George Street and Russell
Terrace was consecrated for use as a burial ground. The
extent to which this area was used for burials is not clear
but some burials were made and Tracey Turnerelli a
Leamington chronicler and a member of the congregation
at St Peters records that the Bisshopps ‘were buried in the
graveyard there under a large cross’. Unfortunately the
Archdiocese of Birmingham archive has no records relating
to this early church. In 1891 an application was made to
move the remains, tombs and monuments from George
Street to the Leamington cemetery in Brunswick Street but
this was not proceeded with for some reason and after
twelve months the licence had lapsed. The memorial stones
and tombs were reportedly still there in the 1950’s so it can
be assumed that the human remains at George Street are
still in situ. The area is now paved and fenced with no
public access. The Seventh Day Adventist Church now
own the church building.

9

Public concern
In the late 1850's the unsatisfactory burial arrangements in the town and the public health hazards
associated with them became an issue of major concern. Twenty-eight local inhabitants petitioned the
General Board of Health in London to set up an enquiry to examine all aspects of the subject and to
make recommendations. The General Board had been created under the Public Health Act of 1848 with
the aim of improving the sanitary conditions of towns and populous places in England & Wales. Mr G T
Clark was appointed Superintending Inspector and he came down to Leamington to conduct an enquiry
under the provisions of the Nuisances' Act 1855. In his report Clark recommended that the two Anglican
burial grounds should be closed and that there should be no further interments within the built-up area
of the town. It was generally agreed by all parties that the only satisfactory solution was the provision
of a cemetery on the outskirts of or just outside the town. The difficulty of course was who would
provide such a facility and more to the point, how would it be financed. John Craig, Vicar of All Saints',
wrote a letter to The Courier which was his customary way of making his views and opinions known to
the public. He expressed his full support for a cemetery and suggested that the churchwardens could levy
a pro rata rate for whatever area of land they (the Anglicans) might require in it and it would then be
open to the Dissenters (the Nonconformists) to raise whatever sums of money would best reflect their
space requirements in any new cemetery. Not surprisingly, his suggestion failed to elicit a response.
10

The ﬁrst cemetery is opened

Following Clark's report and over the ensuing months, both the Vestry and the Leamington
Commissioners held public meetings and wrestled with the problem of securing a cemetery that
would be available to all residents irrespective of their religious afﬁliations. Much of the debate
centred on the legal position of the statutory bodies in Leamington and their legal obligations
under the various Acts of Parliament relating to Public Health. It is to his great credit that the
Vicar, John Craig took the lead in this debate and in 1852 opened a new cemetery in Whitnash
Road (Brunswick Street)

11

Brunswick Street cemetery
Anglican

This three- acre walled plot on the edge of the
southern boundary of Leamington and
Whitnash was opened in 1852. Matthew Wise
gave a portion of the land and paid for the
building of a Lodge and chapel, the balance of
£4,000 was found from the Church Rate and
by the ever generous Vicar of Leamington,
John Craig. The new cemetery was
consecrated by the Bishop of Worcester on 10
March 1852. It has to be said that the new
cemetery was probably seen as something of
a temporary solution to the problem of lack
of burial space. There can be little doubt that
Craig and the Churchwardens had calculated
how many spaces their three acres would
provide. It must have occurred to them that
given the average death rate, the cemetery
would, within a few years, be full and by
1866 that was once again the position in
which they found themselves.
The original cemetery chapel was designed by
local architect David Squirhill

12

The Burial Board
It had for long been a source of great resentment among the
Nonconformists in England that they had to pay the cemetery
and Minister's fees to the Anglican Church but were expressly
prohibited from having one of their own Ministers conduct a
committal. There was a great deal of lobbying on this
particular aspect and local rate payers presented a memorial
to the All Saints churchwardens in June 1866 requesting that a
parish meeting be convened and a Burial Board formed in the
town and a cemetery provided. There was yet another visit by
a Government Inspector Mr P H Holland whose remit was to
report on the state of the parish churchyard. His inspection
got off to a rather unfortunate start when he was involved in
a serious altercation with John Craig in the cemetery which
was reported verbatim in The Courier the following week. In
the fulness of time there was a successful conclusion to the
alienation and ill-feeling between the parties involved and a
Burial Board was formed which undertook to provide and
maintain a second public cemetery, in practice this would be
the ﬁrst burial ground available to those of all faiths or none.
It was constructed next to the Anglican cemetery in
Brunswick Street.

13

Mary Ann Tewart memorial Leamington cemetery

Non-denominational

In 1868 the newly-appointed Burial Board
purchased thirteen acres of land lying to the
west and south-west of the existing
Anglican burial ground. The landowner Mrs
Wise was paid £350 an acre and a smaller
plot of land of about one acre to the north
was also purchased from Messrs Carr and
Watson. The Public Works Commissioners
granted a loan of £8,000 for the purchase of
the land and the erection of a Lodge and
chapels for the Anglicans and
Nonconformists. The cemetery was laid out
in three sections for Anglicans (consecrated)
Dissenters and Roman Catholics. The ﬁrst
funeral took place on 30 October 1868. This
cemetery is still in regular use and is now
administered by Warwick District Council.

14

The original chapel 1852

These photographs( courtesy of All Saints’ church)
show the derelict (Anglican) cemetery chapel in the
1960’s just before the building was demolished. The
site of the chapel is marked on the cemetery plan.
One of the graves lost was that of the former Vicar
of Leamington John Craig whose efforts led to the
provision of the cemetery. Craig died in 1877 and
was laid to rest in the small mausoleum shown (far
right) attached to the East wall of the chapel.

15

The town cemetery
The Anglican chapel continued in use following the
opening of the new and extended cemetery in 1868.
Two new chapels designed by local architect John
Cundall were opened for the Episcopalians seen
below right (the South chapel) and for the
Nonconformists, seen below left (the North chapel).
Neither of these are now used for services and there
is no public access to them.

Interior view of the apse in the
South Chapel

16

Memento mori
Many interments in Leamington
cemeteries are of people who
were not residents but merely
visitors and in such cases it was
common for near relatives to
have photographs taken of the
grave for family members as a
memento mori. This photograph
taken in Leamington Cemetery
shows the grave of Mrs Mary
Ann Strahan of Nottingham
who died at Leamington in
February 1874. It was taken by
the well known photographer
Grahams whose studios were in
Upper Parade.It is interesting in
that it shows the open nature of
the cemetery only six years after
it was ﬁrst opened. Each row of
graves has a marker and each
individual plot was numbered
and these details were entered in
the Burial Register.

17

New Milverton cemetery
Non-denominational

The parish of New Milverton came into being with a new church dedicated to St Mark being opened
on Rugby Road in 1879. There was no provision for a burial ground alongside the new church and in
1881 the Milverton Board of Health opened a new cemetery, four acres in extent, in Old Milverton
Road. Land for the cemetery was given by Lady Charles Bertie Percy and the ﬁrst burial took place
on 7 September 1881. Before this cemetery was opened, Milverton burials had taken place either in
the Brunswick Street cemetery or in the churchyard at Old Milverton for those residents of New
Milverton who habitually worshipped there.
A ﬁne chapel was built in the centre of the New Milverton cemetery but the pressure
on burial space led to its demolition in recent years.
The cemetery is now closed for burials but open daily for visitors.
18

Leamington Burial Registers
All Saints’churchyard
Original registers exist which commence in 1618. These early registers are held in the Warwickshire County Record Office
(WCRO) at DR 571/1 and ZO 420 and relate to burials in the graveyard adjoining the church. Also at WCRO is an index
to burials for the period 1618 - 1750 compiled by H S Tallamy. Leamington Library holds facsimiles of early burial records
for the Anglican section of Brunswick Street from 1852 compiled by the former Parish Clerk, Edwin Bloomfield in 1886,
these are in three black volumes titled All Saints Burial Index in the glass-fronted book case in the references section.
Bloomfield’s original volumes are in WCRO.

The early records for the Anglican cemetery at New Street and what is referred to as All Saints’ churchyard at Brunswick
Street are deposited in WCRO and catalogued at DR 571 et seq. and at DR 514. Copies of original burial registers for 1868 1894 (Burial Board) are also in WCRO at GMJ 210 - 212. Warwick District Council (at Oakley Wood Crematorium) holds
records of burials at Brunswick Street from 1868. Recent burials in the Anglican plot are recorded in the All Saints Burial
Register which is in the custody of the Vicar of Leamington.See above for earlier records of the All Saints section.

New Street cemetery
See under ‘All Saints churchyard’ at DR 571 in WCRO
Spencer Street cemetery
The Burial Register for Spencer Street, listing almost four hundred burials, is held at WCRO in CR 2014/6. The register also
includes a plan of the burial ground with all graves named. It also includes a plan showing the layout of the vaults beneath
the chapel with names of those interred.

Mill Street cemetery
Burial registers are extant only for the years 1831 - 1837 and are available on microfilm at WCRO at MI 191/192

George Street burial ground
A register of baptisms, marriages and burials is extant for the period 1822 - 1831 and is available on microfilm at WCRO at
MI 190

Milverton cemetery
Burial records for the Milverton cemetery are held by Warwick District Council at Oakley Wood Crematorium
19

Memorial inscriptions

All Saints churchyard/New Street/Brunswick Street
Memorial Inscriptions are recorded in the ZI series at WCRO where hard copies of the entries are available in volumes
on the open shelves in the Search Room. There are named indexes but coverage is not comprehensive and only for
certain sections of Brunswick Street.
Spencer Street
A survey was made in 1927 when 73 inscriptions were recorded. This list is at WCRO CR 2024/54
Mill Street
There is no extant list of the memorial inscriptions in this burial ground.
Milverton cemetery
No list is known to exist of the memorial inscriptions in this cemetery.

20

Acknowledgements
This slide show in the Leamington Discovered series was researched and compiled by
Alan Grifﬁn with valuable help from Barry Franklin,Richard King and
Alan Tucker-Lee (Warwick District Council).
The majority of the images are the copyright of Leamington History Group who readily
acknowledge additional images supplied by Leamington Museum and Art Gallery (Warwick
District Council), Warwickshire County Record Ofﬁce and the Vicar & churchwardens of All
Saints’ church, Leamington Spa.
This presentation is in PDF form and any part of it can be downloaded for
non-commercial use without further reference to the compilers.
21

End of slide show

22

A guide to burial grounds in Leamington Spa

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A guide to burial grounds in Leamington Spa