Bishopwearmouth Cemetery is a cemetery in
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
, Tyne and Wear, England. It lies between Hylton Road and Chester Road (
A183 road).
History
Due to the
cholera epidemic of 1831
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
and the subsequent overcrowding of churchyards, it was decided to build new cemeteries in Sunderland after the passing of the
Burial Act 1852 and
1853
Events
January–March
* January 6 – Florida Governor Thomas Brown signs legislation that provides public support for the new East Florida Seminary, leading to the establishment of the University of Florida.
* January 8 – Taiping Reb ...
.
The chosen for Bishopwearmouth Cemetery lay on the edge of the county and parliamentary boundary of Sunderland and was
glebe
Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...
land, owned by the Parish of
Bishopwearmouth
Bishopwearmouth is a former village and parish which now constitutes the west side of Sunderland City Centre, merging with the settlement as it expanded outwards in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is home to the Sunderland Minster church, which ...
.
The land was sold by the parish for £275 (£17,839.73 in 2007) per acre and the cemetery cost £2000 (£129,743.47 in 2007) to build.
It opened in July 1856, on the same day as another new cemetery,
Mere Knolls Cemetery, situated in
Fulwell.
All
religious denomination
A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name and tradition among other activities.
The term refers to the various Christian denominations (for example, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and the many varie ...
s were allotted separate areas and it soon became the town's main burial site.
In 1891, the cemetery was extended further west and further extended in 1926. The whole site now covers .
Jewish burials
Sunderland once had a thriving
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
population. In 1856, the only Jewish cemetery, at
Ayres Quay in Bishopwearmouth, closed. A site at the new Bishopwearmouth Cemetery for Jewish burials was then dedicated in the north east corner of the cemetery (the first cemetery in
County Durham
County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly About North East E ...
to do so), adjacent to the Roman Catholic section.
On the cemetery's expansion in 1926, another section was dedicated at the new western edge and on the cemetery's final expansion in 1926, the new north-west section was dedicated and a Jewish prayer house was built; this section is currently fenced-off from the other wards of the cemetery.
War Graves
In the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, part of Ward 3 (Section A) of the cemetery was set apart for burials of servicemen. This plot, at a central point on the path linking the cemetery's two entrances, was extended in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. In all, 237 Commonwealth service personnel (all but about 100 of whom were buried in the plot) from the First World War and 156 from the Second are buried in this cemetery. The
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...
are also responsible for 31 non-World War service burials and one Dutch war grave. The Cemetery also contains a
Cross of Sacrifice
The Cross of Sacrifice is a Commonwealth war memorial designed in 1918 by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). It is present in Commonwealth war cemeteries containing 40 or ...
.
Listed buildings
There are nine
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s within Bishopwearmouth Cemetery; all are Grade II. These are:
*The gates, piers and railings at the north entrance of the east side of the cemetery.
*The gates, piers and railings at the south entrance of the east side of the cemetery.
*The north (
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
) chapel.
*The south (
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
) chapel (vandalised)
*The south east lodge.
*The tomb of Christopher Maling Webster (1813–1890) and his family.
*The tomb of John Bolam (1815–1885) and his family.
*The tomb of Margaret Taylor (1849–1911), wife of Jenneson Taylor.
*The tomb of members of the
Vaux family
Vaux may refer to:
People
* Antoine-Alexis Cadet de Vaux (1743–1828), French chemist and pharmacist
* Bernard Carra de Vaux (1867–1953), French orientalist who published accounts of his travels in the Middle East
*Clotilde de Vaux (1815–184 ...
.
The central (
Nonconformist
Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to:
Culture and society
* Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior
*Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity
** ...
) chapel was formerly a listed building until it was demolished due to vandalism. The memorial to the
Victoria Hall disaster
The Victoria Hall disaster occurred on 16 June 1883 at the Victoria Hall in Sunderland, England, when a stampede for free toys caused 183 children (aged between 3 and 14 years old) to be crushed to death due to compressive asphyxia.
Events
O ...
, formerly situated in the cemetery and now in
Mowbray Park
Mowbray Park is a municipal park in the centre of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, located a few hundred yards from the busy thoroughfares of Holmeside and Fawcett Street and bordered by Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens to the north, ...
, is also a listed building.
[ ]
Notable burials
*
James Allan, founder of
Sunderland A.F.C
Sunderland Association Football Club (, ) is an English professional football club based in the city of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Formed in 1879, Sunderland play in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club has won six ...
.
*
Sir Robert Appleby Bartram, shipbuilder.
*
Joseph John Binns, department store owner.
*
Sir Jacob "Jack" Cohen, local politician.
*
Sir Theodore Doxford, shipbuilder and politician.
*
Sir James Laing, shipbuilder.
*
Martini Maccomo
Martini Maccomo (died 11 January 1871) was a lion tamer in Victorian Britain. He performed with William Manders' menagerie from around 1854 and remained the group's key attraction until his death. His act involved pursuing lions and tigers aro ...
, lion tamer.
*
Mamie Stuart
Mamie Stuart (c. 24 November 1893 - November or December 1919) was a 26-year-old English woman who disappeared from her home in Caswell Bay, Wales, in 1919 and whose disappearance became known via the media as the Chorus Girl Mystery. Her husban ...
, murder victim interred 100 years after her death.
*
Sir Luke Thompson, coal merchant and politician.
*
Thomas Scott Turnbull, draper and co-founder of the ''
Sunderland Echo
The ''Sunderland Echo'' is a daily newspaper serving the City of Sunderland, Sunderland, South Tyneside and Easington (district), East Durham areas of North East England. The newspaper was founded by Samuel Storey, Edward Backhouse, Edward Tem ...
''.
*
Joseph Wiggins
Joseph Wiggins FRGS (3 September 1832 – 13 September 1905) was an English mariner, born at Norwich into a family of mailcoach operators.
He rounded out a successful career as a sea captain by utilizing a portion of the northern sea route to S ...
,
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
explorer.
*
Sir Albert Scholick Wilkin, confectioner.
References
{{Cemeteries in England
Cemeteries in Tyne and Wear
Sunderland
Grade II listed buildings in Tyne and Wear