Rotherham The Unofficial Website

Rotherham Cemeteries

For a long time burials took place in the local church graveyard. Members of the established church were buried in consecrated ground whilst many churchyards had an unconsecrated area off to one side where unbaptised babies and Non-Anglicans were interred. By the Nineteenth Century the population had increased to such an extent that new burial sites had to be found.

In the town of Rotherham the churchyard of All Saints was closed to further burials in 1854. The graveyard was in any case wholly inadequate for a town the size of Rotherham. Regular epidemics, especially of cholera ensured that the gravediggers were kept busy. For some time the graves had been re-used every nine years or so. Later burials them took place at Moorgate Cemetery. I feel sure that when I was a child Rotherham Churchyard was still full of graves. However these have been moved and the remains buried elsewhere leaving only a few gravestones laid down on the All Saints Square side.

The burial records for the cemeteries in the borough of Rotherham can be found at Rotherham Cemeteries & Crematorium, 20 Ridgeway, East Herringthorpe, Rotherham, Tel. 01709 850344. Monumental Inscriptions have been published by Rotherham Family History.

The cholera burial ground was in a once isolated spot off Far Lane at East Dene. I believe that it is still there surrounded by council houses on Park Road.

Apologies if I've forgotten any. Please let me have details.

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