Hartshill Cemetery (reflecting the values of Victorian Society)

The grave block plan

 

THE GRAVE BLOCK PLAN

On the 10th of December 1884 the Cemetery Committee instructed the Borough Surveyor to prepare a large scale grave plan shoving the grave spaces due east and west. 

The ground was also to be divided into first, second, third and fourth class graves for each religious denomination. 

 

Grave block plan

The original plan contained 139 blocks. There were 200 grave spaces in each block which was divided into 10 rows with 20 graves per row. Each grave was 9 feet long by 4 feet wide. This ensured that when the grave was excavated in the middle of the space there was ample solid ground on either side.

The cemetery was subsequently extended in 1904 on the north-west side and the new blocks were identified by letters instead of numbers (see right hand corner of plan above).

 A second extension took place in the 1930s and here the block numbers were continued from 139 to 162.

example of a concrete number block

questions/comments/contributions? email: Steve Birks