St Sepulchre's Cemetery

St Sepulchre's Cemetery

View of St Sepulchre's Cemetery.
Details
Established 1849
Location Jericho, Oxford
Country United Kingdom
Type Public (closed)
Size ?
Number of graves ?
The entrance to St Sepulchre's Cemetery.
Benjamin Jowett, buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery.

St Sepulchre's Cemetery is located in Jericho, central Oxford, England.

This cemetery was opened in Walton Street, Oxford in 1848 as a parish cemetery for four of the twelve parishes of Oxford (St Giles, St Paul, St Michael, and St Mary Magdalen). All the existing Oxford churchyards were overcrowded after many hundreds of years of burials, and two other cemeteries Osney Cemetery and Holywell Cemetery.[1] were opened in the same year to cater for the other eight Oxford parishes. In 1855, new burials were forbidden in all Oxford city churchyards, apart from in existing vaults.

The cemetery was originally surrounded on two sides by the Lucy factory, the former Eagle Ironworks, but this industrial site has now been redeveloped for housing.

St Sepulchre's Cemetery itself became overcrowded later in Victorian times.[2]

The cemetery is now unused and had become overgrown and a site of anti-social behaviour. A Friends of St Sepulchre's Cemetery group was formed and regularly meets to clear vegetation from the grounds, making it a more hospitable open space and protecting the memorials from damage.

Before the cemetery was created, Walton Manor Farm used to be on this site.[3]

Access to the cemetery is through iron gates attached to a Gothic lodge off Walton Street.

Notable burials

People buried here include:

See also

References

  1. Burial grounds in the city of Oxford, Burials in Oxford.
  2. An Overcrowded Cemetery, The New York Times, May 8, 1887.
  3. Christopher Hibbert and Edward Hibbert (editors), The Encyclopaedia of Oxford. Macmillan, 1988, page 490. ISBN 978-0-333-39917-0.

External links

Coordinates: 51°45′40″N 1°16′10″W / 51.76111°N 1.26944°W