 |
Introduction to
the walk around Hartshill Cemetery |
These
notes accompany a history "walk" around the Stoke-upon-Trent
Municipal cemetery at Hartshill. The purpose of the walk is to show how the
construction, organisation and management of the cemetery reflected the values
of Victorian society.
The
actual walk was conducted in June 2000 by Andrew Dobraszczyc (Keele
University). Photos & web production by Steve Birks.
The
decision to provide a new municipal cemetery for the borough of
Stoke-upon-Trent was made at the following meeting recorded in the Cemetery
Committee Minute Book in 1881:
“At
a meeting of a special committee appointed by the Borough Council to
consider the advisability of taking steps to provide a public cemetery held
at the Town Hall, Stoke, on Monday, 30 May 1881:
Present:
Colin Minton Campbell, Mayor, Chairman, and Aldermen Keary, Lynam and
Minton, councillors Faram, Smith, Buckley and Leason.
Your
Committee have considered the question of providing a pubic cemetery and
finding that the graveyards at Hartshill and Penkhull are almost fully
occupied and that the Stoke Burial Ground is rapidly filling they have come
to the conclusion that steps should be taken by the Council with a view to
ascertain what sites are available within the borough suitable for a
cemetery and instruct the Clerk to insert an advertisement in local papers
inviting offers of about 15 acres.”
It took 3˝ years to select a site and to build the new cemetery. The site
chosen was not a popular one because it was so far away from the town between
the villages of Hartshill and Penkhull There was also public disquiet about
the choice of architect and the number of chapels built.
In spite of these problems the project was successfully completed because it
was supported by Colin Minton Campbell, mayor of the borough between 1880 and
1883, and the largest pottery manufacturer in the town. He made his support
for the project clear at a banquet held in his honour at the North Stafford
Hotel in November 1881.
The Staffordshire Sentinel reported “With regard to the cemetery, he thought
it was the greatest effort of his Mayorality. He proposed to give a sum of
money in order that the cemetery might be laid out in a more ornamental way
than others in the district were with a view of making it such a resort that
it might be called a public park for the town.”
The extract from the first edition six inch Ordnance Survey Map above shows
the proposed site for the new cemetery.
