Nottingham's Historic Cemeteries
Church (Rock) Cemetery
If walking above and below graves in a Victorian cemetery isn’t enough to entice you to visit this fascinatingly beautiful Cemetery, this one also boasts a former hangman’s Gallow, caves where Robin Hood himself is said to have stabled his horses and Nottingham’s Catacombs.
Also known as Rock Cemetery, owing to its shallow soil and outcrops of sandstone, Church Cemetery was founded in 1851 on a barren hillside formerly used as a quarry and a place of public execution. It was built to accommodate a rapidly expanding urban population just outside Nottingham. Sandstone tombs and grave plots speckle the grounds.
Following the Second World War, the General Cemetery Company who purchased the land in the 1850s was declared bankrupt and ownership of the cemetery passed to the Crown. Eventually the ownership of the Cemetery would pass to the City Council in the early 1960s.
Notable Interments:
Thomas Adams (Manufacturer and Philanthropist) 1973
Phillip James Bailey (Poet) 1902
Samuel Waite Heazell (Railway Engineer) 1912
Arthur Clamp (Footballer) 1918
James Shipstone (founder of Shipstone Brewery) 1922
Sir Frank Bowden (founder of Raleigh Bicycle Company) 1921
Watson Fothergill (Architect) 1928
General Cemetery
The Nottingham General Cemetery Company received Royal Assent for this cemetery on 19 May 1836. The initial site comprised of 14 acres but in 1845 it was extended by 4 acres.
In 1837–40, the Cemetery Gatehouse was constructed to the designs of the architect Samuel Sutton Rawlinson at the top of Sion Hill, now Canning Circus. Rawlinson also provided two mortuary chapels; an Anglican Chapel in 1840, and one to be used by Dissenters in c1850.
In 1923 the Medical Officer of Health expressed concern about the future of the cemetery and a bill was taken to Parliament to prevent new burials except in existing family plots.
After the Second World War, the Cemetery Company went into liquidation, and after a period of ownership by the Crown, the freehold passed to Nottingham City Council in 1956. The mortuary chapels were both in a state of disrepair and were demolished in 1958.
Notable Interments:
Ann Taylor (Poet) 1866
Francis Marshall Ward (Singer) 1914
William Wallett (The Queen’s Jester) 1892
Basford Cemetery
The old parish of Basford lay 1½-3 miles north of Nottingham. In the latter half of the 19th century it was a major centre for framework knitting. The new cemetery was situated in Nottingham Road in what is now New Basford. It is smaller than the Rock Cemetery, originally covering an area of just six acres and containing two mortuary chapels.
The Cemetery has numerous War Graves commemorating 47 people who lost their lives to the World Wars.
Notable Interments
Henry Finn (Chemical Works Manager)
George Cox Stretton (Coal Merchant)
“Such a lovely place to sit and remember.”