Tredworth Road Cemetery, sometimes known as Gloucester Old Cemetery, is a cemetery in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

, England, that is run by

Gloucester City Council Gloucester City Council is the local authority for Gloucester, which is split into 18 wards, with a total of 39 councillors elected to serve on the City Council. History The district was formed from the County Borough of Gloucester on 1 April 1 ...

. In addition, it contains over 250 war graves 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 ...

. The cemetery chapel is a grade II listed building with Historic England.

Location

The cemetery is located in Tredworth Road and Cemetery Road and occupies 35 acres. The Sudbrook crosses the northern part of the area.

History

A burial board was formed for the city of Gloucester in 1856 and the Tredworth Road Cemetery opened in 1857 after which the dead of the city ceased to be interred in the old city churchyards formerly used for that purpose.''Civil Cemeteries and Burial Boards''
Gloucestershire Archives, 2013. The cemetery was originally of 13 acres to the north of Tredworth Road but it was extended in 1875, 1909 and 1911 to include land to the south of the road by which time it covered 35 acres. The two areas were known as the "old cemetery" and the "new cemetery". When Coney Hill Cemetery and Crematorium was opened in 1939, the whole of the Tredworth Road Cemetery became known colloquially as Gloucester Old Cemetery with the northern part known as "chapel side" and the southern side as the "B" ground. Between 1976 and 1987, Gloucester City Council deliberately destroyed many attractive marble and granite memorials from the Chapel Side of the Old Cemetery, solely to allow better access for industrial sized lawn-mowers. Details of the gravestones, including the epitaphs carefully chiselled many years previously, were at least recorded and the transcriptions are available to view in the National Archives and also via ''Gloucestershire Family History Society''. The cemetery was in the news in 2013 due to an attempted grave robbery. The cemetery is maintained by the Gloucester City Council. Retrieved 10 June 2016.

Chapel

The cemetery chapel, located on the north side of the site, was designed in the

Gothic style 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 ...

by Medland and Maberly for the Corporation of the City of Gloucester. It is symmetrical with parallel chapels for

Anglicans Anglicanism is a Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia ...

and Nonconformists joined by a central carriageway and a grade II listed building with

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

who describe it as "a fine example of the type of linked chapels often provided in corporation cemeteries in the C19".

War graves

The cemetery contains burials from both world wars. There are 158 graves from the First World War, the majority in the original part of the cemetery, of which 81 are in a separate war graves plot. There are also 94 Second World War burials, mostly in the new part, of which 60 are in a separate war graves plot. Both have 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 ...

. In addition there are 10 non world war service burials and 7 foreign national burials in the cemetery.Gloucester Old Cemetery.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 10 June 2016. Burials are from all of the services, including 41 from the Gloucestershire Regiment, four Australians, one Belgian, two men of the German Army, two of the Italian Army, two of the Polish Air Force, five of the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

, three of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and one South African. File:Chapel side war graves Tredworth Road Cemetery, Gloucester (6).jpg, First World War graves at the chapel side war graves plot. File:Cross of Sacrifice, chapel side, Tredworth Road Cemetery, Gloucester.jpg, The chapel side cross of sacrifice. File:Gloucestershire Regiment war graves, chapel side, Tredworth Road Cemetery, Gloucester.jpg, Graves of men of the Gloucestershire Regiment.

Notable interments

Robert Blinkhorn Robert Blinkhorn (c. 1814 – 31 October 1888) was a prominent Gloucester businessman and local political figure. Career Robert and his wife Eleanor were both born in Maidstone, Kent and moved to Gloucester later. He established the ''Blin ...

, businessman and Alderman of the City of Gloucester. * Herbert Haines, teacher and scholar of monumental brasses * James Medland, architect to the City of Gloucester.

References

External links

Gloucester Old Cemetery ("B" Ground), Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Church History

* {{coord, 51.8492, N, 2.2305, W, type:landmark_region:GB-GLS, display=title Gloucester Cemeteries in Gloucestershire 1857 establishments in England