Earlham Road Cemetery, Norwich also known as Earlham Cemetery or Norwich Cemetery is a cemetery located in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

which was officially opened on 6 March 1856 and covers .Friends of Earlham Cemetery
/ref> The cemetery is divided into two distinct sites by Farrow Road

A140 The A140 is an 'A-class' road in Norfolk and Suffolk, East Anglia, England partly following the route of the Roman Pye Road. It runs from the A14 near Needham Market to the A149 south of Cromer. It is of primary status for the entirety of ...

which runs north–south across the site. To the east of the road is the original 19th century cemetery and to the west of the road lies the 20th century addition. Today, it caters for all faiths with separate burial grounds and chapels for

Jews 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 ...

and Catholics and a growing one for

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

together with two military cemeteries. The 19th century cemetery is designed with an informal ''garden cemetery'' layout with winding paths while the remainder is a more formal grid type which was favoured by cemetery designer

John Claudius Loudon John Claudius Loudon (8 April 1783 – 14 December 1843) was a Scottish botanist, garden designer and author. He was the first to use the term arboretum in writing to refer to a garden of plants, especially trees, collected for the purpose of ...

. Much of the original cemetery is a

County Wildlife Site County Wildlife Site (often abbreviated to CWS) is a conservation designation in the United Kingdom, which despite conferring no statutory protection onto a site, does affirm a site's importance and value for wildlife in its county context. The d ...

and contains grassland and a wide selection of mature trees.

History

In the 19th century a link had been established between the overflowing city churchyards and the outbreak of diseases. As a result of a cholera epidemic in the city in 1848–49, the Mayor of Norwich received an order from the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...

that all burials must cease in the city's churchyards from 1 February 1855. A number of possible sites were considered but eventually former farmland in Earlham was acquired and purchased with a loan of £5000 from

Gurney's Bank Gurney's bank was a family-run bank founded by members of the Gurney family in 1770 and headquartered in Norwich, England. It merged into Barclays Bank in 1896. History The bank was founded in 1770 by John and Henry Gurney, sons of John Gurney ...

. Edward E Benest, the city surveyor, designed the cemetery to cater for all faiths with consecrated sections for

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

burials and unconsecrated for non-conformist burials together with a separate burial ground and mortuary chapel for Jews. Included in his original plans were lodges, offices, twin

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

chapels and the planting of trees and shrubs. In 1874 a further were added to the north-east of the site and a

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 let ...

chapel was built. A piece of land was reserved in this new section for the burial of soldiers from the city's Britannia Barracks. Money was raised by public subscription to raise a monument in their memory. A statue designed by John Bell and made by Doultons and named ''The Spirit of the Army – Armed Science'' was unveiled by Lord Waveney in 1878. A further was purchased in 1892 and by the late-1920s extended beyond Farrow Road to its present size of . During

World War II 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 opposing ...

the city was bombed in the two

Baedeker Verlag Karl Baedeker, founded by Karl Baedeker on July 1, 1827, is a German publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred to simply as " Baedekers" (a term sometimes used to refer to similar works fro ...

raids in 1942 with 235 civilians losing their lives. A memorial to them was laid out in a section of the cemetery to the west of Farrow Road in 1946. Baedeker Raids civilian memorial

Recent history

In 1893 the

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk and eastern Cambridgeshire, and is published daily in Norwich, UK. Founded in 1870 as a broadsheet called the ''Eastern Counties Daily P ...

reported that 57,759 people had been buried in the grounds. Today that number is in the hundreds of thousands with burial space limited. After the Second World War

cremation Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre is ...

became widely used which has helped to alleviate the problem with cremation rates rising to 72.44%. In spite of the popularity of cremation the cemetery is rapidly filling up and this has led to recent proposals for

natural burial Natural burial is the interment of the body of a dead person in the soil in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition but allows the body to be naturally recycled. It is an alternative to other contemporary Western burial methods and funera ...

Notable buildings

The principal building in the cemetery is the

crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...

, designed by David Percival, to replace the original twin-chapels of Benest's design in 1963–64 and reuses the original fish scale roof tiles.Historic England-Earlham Rd Cemetery
Retrieved 5 October 2015 as well as roof timbering. It stands close to the cemetery's main entrance in

Earlham Road Earlham Road (the B1108) is a road in Norwich, England, linking the city centre to the area of Earlham to the west of the city and the Norwich southern bypass ( A47) beyond. Details The road formerly marked the northern limit of the Golden ...

. By October 1998 the crematorium and the adjacent garden were sold by the local authority to Dignity plc. Approximately south of the crematorium stands the

two-storey South Lodge (Benest 1856). The building was sold by auction in 2015. North Lodge is of the same style and date of South Lodge and stands close to the Bowthorpe Road entrance; both buildings housed the cemetery's superintendents. North Lodge's gardens are opened to the public annually, in aid of charity. Adjacent to South Lodge is the gothic flint and tile Roman Catholic chapel (Pearce 1874). Approximately north-west of the crematorium and adjacent to Bowthorpe Road is the small brick and tile mortuary chapel standing in the Jewish burial ground designed by Benest in 1856.

Notable interments

Buried close to the Bowthorpe Road entrance lies the grave of eminent local architect,

George Skipper George John Skipper (1856–1948) was a leading Norwich-based architect of the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Writer and poet, John Betjeman said of him "he is altogether remarkable and original. He was to Norwich what Gaudi was to Ba ...

. Founder of the Round Table, Louis Marchesi is interred in the Roman Catholic section of the cemetery. John Middleton one of the

Norwich School of painters The Norwich School of painters was the first provincial art movement established in Britain, active in the early 19th century. Artists of the school were inspired by the natural environment of the Norfolk landscape and owed some influence to the wo ...

is buried close to the main drive adjacent to the crematorium.

War graves

There are casualties of the South African War buried in the original cemetery. There are also 550 graves of service personnel that are registered and maintained by 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 m ...

from the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

(nearly 350) and

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 opposi ...

s (nearly 200). Nearly half of the First World War graves are in two military plots, one in the north-east and the other in the western sections of the cemetery. Land adjacent the latter was set aside for burying personnel in the Second World War, forming a combined World Wars section with 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 ...

a focal point. There is also a special memorial to a serviceman buried among civilian air raid casualties whose grave could not be individually marked by a headstone.

Location

The cemetery is approximately west from the city centre. Earlham Road B1108 and Gipsy Lane form the southern boundary with Farrow Road A140 forming the western boundary. Its eastern boundary is formed by private gardens while the northern boundary is bounded by Bowthorpe Road and a short section of Dereham Road A1074.

Wildlife

The cemetery to the east of Farrow Road is a County Wildlife Site and is home to a wide range of wildlife. Over 150 flower species have been recorded together with over 80 tree species being identified. Many of the trees are original plantings from when the cemetery was first established. Also present are many bird species together with numerous insects and mammals including

muntjac deer Muntjacs ( ), also known as the barking deer or rib-faced deer, (URL is Google Books) are small deer of the genus ''Muntiacus'' native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Muntjacs are thought to have begun appearing 15–35 million years ago, ...

and

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

Transport links

The main entrance at Earlham Road and the entrances at Dereham Road and Bowthorpe Road are all served by bus services provided by

First Norfolk & Suffolk First Eastern Counties is a bus operator providing services in Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern England. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. It has seven depots which are part of five operating areas spread out across East Anglia. The five operat ...

and Konnectbus. They also stop a short distance from the entrances at Farrow Road.Konnectbus
Retrieved 19 November 2015

References

External links

Friends of Earlham CemeteryCWGC: Norwich Cemetery, Norfolk
{{Cemeteries in England Norwich Cemeteries in Norfolk Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in England