Local History

Edgerton Cemetery [Photo: John Rumsby]

Not only is John Rumsby a historian but he's also something of an expert in Victorian attitudes to death. John believes that Huddersfield's main cemetery, just off the Halifax Road in Edgerton, provides us with something of a picture of life in Victorian Huddersfield: "Cemeteries tell us a lot about the life of the people who are buried there. You can see what sort of art they were interested in by looking at the style of the monuments. The symbolism of the monuments tells you something about their religious beliefs. What they write about themselves on the monuments can tell you what they were proud of - one chap here proudly proclaims he's a pork butcher."

But for John Edgerton Cemetery is much more than a source for stories about individual lives: "The way the cemetery is arranged tells you how Victorian society was arranged. There are nine different areas in the cemetery and you won't be surprised to know that they are arranged by a scale of fees. If you were really rich you would be buried in the most expensive area leading down from the gateway to the chapel. You can see that the largest monuments are nearly all along that central alleyway. If you were much poorer you would be buried over there in the corner where nobody ever came and there are all sort of gradations in between."

John takes a stroll around the cemetery

John explains that the other very important division here was between consecrated and unconsecrated ground. Originally the consecrated ground was reserved for followers of the Church of England!

Edgerton Cemetery was opened in 1856. In 1850 Parliament had passed an Act allowing local authorities to set up their own burial grounds and here in Huddersfield businessmen, politicians and journalists set up a committee to work towards the establishment of a cemetery for the town. It's likely that some members of the committee had their own final resting place in mind. John points to one particularly big obelisk belonging to committee member Joshua Hobson.

However, these were also people who realised that something had to be done about a situation that was out of control: "The state of the graveyards in the town was absolutely appalling. It was estimated that something like nine bodies were buried in each square foot of the graveyard at Huddersfield Parish Church so in hot weather the church windows had to be closed rather than opened because the stench was unbearable for the congregation, and many of the smaller burial grounds were in a similar state."

"Another lamb folded" [Photo: John Rumsby]

The architect hired to create the new cemetery was James Pritchett who, just a few years earlier, had designed Huddersfield's grand railway station. In the 1830s he had also planned York City Cemetery in the classical style but times were changing. John says: "In the 1850s the approved style was Gothic and Pritchett was quite able to turn his hand to different styles. You can see the twin chapels, with the spire and arch between them, are firmly in Gothic style. The twin chapels are the main architectural feature."

But, as John explains, these two chapels were to be the subject of some controversy in the town: "They are joined by a central arch through which the hearse and the funeral procession go. Although this is a common arrangement - you can find it in the cemeteries at Heckmondwike, Batley and Dewsbury - in Huddersfield the chapels aren't actually joined although they look as though they are. If you look closely behind the buttresses you will find there is a gap of about six to nine inches (not very much) between the chapel and the arch. This is because the vicar of Huddersfield, the Reverend Bateman, objected very strongly to the Church of England performing any ceremony in a building attached to a Non-Conformist building. In the end a compromise had to be made."

Although this arrangement is unusual John says in many ways Edgerton is a very typical town cemetery: "It's got these nice flowing paths which have been maintained. This was part of the idea of a cemetery. The main point was, of course, the burying of dead bodies but it was also meant to be a place of recreation at a time when there were no public parks, certainly not in Huddersfield."

Edgerton Cemetery opened in 1856 and another four acres were added in 1885. Today the cemetery is almost full and often burials take place in pre-existing family graves.

John says: "I don't think anyone knows quite how many burials there are in here" but, he adds, "it's by looking closely at the monuments that you begin to put together people's individual stories."

As we stroll around the cemetery we pass the final resting places of many of Huddersfield's former movers and shakers - people like political agitator Joshua Hobson and mayor Charles Henry Jones - but it can be the monuments of unknown people which speak to us most strongly across the years.

Admire the stone carvings [Photo: John Rumsby]

Arthur Henry Garrett was just six when he died in 1868. We don't know how he died and we know that while life expectancy was greater for those lucky enough to be born into a middle class Huddersfield family, child mortality was a feature of life whatever your social status. Many of the monuments here feature long lists of children but what is special about Arthur's grave is the almost life-sized statue. He has curly hair and he's wearing a dress as little boys did at that time. John reads out the inscriptions on the monument -  'Early at the Cross' and 'Another lamb folded' which he sees as one reflection of the way people tried to come to terms with their individual tragedies.

Another son being mourned by his parents is Corporal Herbert Brook of the Royal Medical Army Corps. Henry had been decorated during the First World War but, as his gravestone tells us, died on "demobilisation furlough" (leave). John says: "You can imagine him coming home on leave just before he was released from the army and then he died in February 1919, almost certainly in the great flu epidemic which at that time killed more people around the world than the First World War did. It's such a sad story."

Here too can be found the story of what is probably the most tragic event in Huddersfield's history - 49 people were killed on October 31st 1941 as a result of an horrific fire at Booth's clothing factory on John William Street. Looking at the memorial to those who died in the fire John points out that it just doesn't list the victims' names: "It says, 'They died at duty'. In the War everybody was regarded as being a worker...Most of the factory workers were female, and most of them died directly from the fire or from smoke inhalation, or indeed from jumping out of the building because they couldn't get out."

Today John believes that - unlike its predecessors - the Cemetery is still very well maintained but the twin chapels at its heart, no longer in use, are now railed off for safety reasons. Perhaps if, like our Victorian ancestors, we see Edgerton Cemetery as a place of interest and recreation, then its preservation may be more certain. After all "tombs are always on view"!

Booth factory fire memorial [photo: John Rumsby]

['Through Elysian Fields, a Guided Walk through Edgerton Cemetery' takes place on Saturday September 13th starting at the Entrance Lodge at 2.30pm. Just turn up but walking shoes are advisable. This is a Heritage Open Days 2008 event]