Beckett Street Cemetery

The site was approved as part of the Leeds Burial Grounds Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. ciii), initially to cover an area of {{convert|10|acre|0}}, and saw its first burial on 14 August 1845.{{cite web |title=Acts of the Parliaments of the United Kingdom Part 28 (1842) |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/changes/chron-tables/local/28 |website=legislation.gov.uk |access-date=12 December 2022}}{{cite journal |last1=Beresford |first1=Maurice |title=Reviewed Work: To Prove I'm Not Forgot: Living and Dying in a Victorian City by Sylvia M. Barnard |journal=History |date=February 1992 |volume=77 |issue=249 |publisher=Wiley |issn=0018-2648}} Land was acquired from William Beckett, who was elected to Parliament for Leeds in 1841. His neighbour, Griffith Wright Junior, who was the editor of the Leeds Intelligencer (a forerunner of The Yorkshire Post), also offered his land for sale as he thought the presence of a cemetery would de-value his property.{{cite web |title=A Brief History of Cemeteries in Leeds |url=https://secretlibraryleeds.net/2019/08/23/a-brief-history-of-cemeteries-in-leeds/ |website=secretlibraryleeds.net |access-date=21 December 2022 |date=23 August 2019}} The first burial, that of a child, was officiated over by Jabez Tunnicliff, a Baptist minister who was prominent in Temperance circles.{{cite book |last1=Barnard |first1=Sylvia M. |title=To prove I'm not forgot: living and dying in a Victorian city |date=2009 |orig-date=1990 |publisher=History Press |location=Stroud |isbn=978-0-7509-5060-2 |page=14}} Eventually, some twenty years later, Tunnicliff himself would end up being interred in the cemetery.{{cite book |last1=Marles |first1=H |title=The life and labours of the Rev. Jabez Tunnicliff, minister of the gospel at Tall Lane Chapel, Leeds, and founder of the Band of Hope in England |date=1865 |publisher=Tweedie |location=London |page=262|oclc=19744151}}

It was initially known as Burmantofts Cemetery (at least until 1895),{{cite news |title=Deaths |work=The Times |issue=34503 |date=18 February 1895 |location=Column A |page=1|issn=0140-0460}} and Leeds Burial Ground, but is now popularly known as Beckett Street Cemetery, and was one of the first municipal cemeteries in England; one that was bought and organised by the town council with public funds.{{cite web |title=East Leeds History & Archaeology Society |url=http://www.elhas.org.uk/news/nov13.htm |website=elhas.org.uk |access-date=19 December 2022}}{{#tag:ref|A cemetery in Leeds was opened at Woodhouse Moor in 1835, but by a company of shareholders. The Beckett Street Cemetery was sponsored by Leeds Town Council, Leeds still being a town at this time, not gaining city status until 1893.{{cite book |last1=Beckett |first1=John |title=City Status in the British Isles. |date=2017 |orig-date=2005|publisher=Taylor and Francis |location=London |isbn=9781351951265 |page=57}}{{cite web |editor-last1=White |editor-first1=Jennifer |title=List of Registered Cemeteries |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/list-of-registered-cemeteries/registered-cemeteries-list-jan18/ |website=historicengland.org.uk |access-date=21 December 2022 |page=17 |date=2017| orig-date=2011}} Hunslet Cemetery (also known as Woodhouse Hill Cemetery), was opened one month earlier in July 1845.{{cite news |title=Vandalised Hunslet Cemetery to be improved |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14277317 |access-date=12 December 2022 |work=BBC News |date=25 July 2011}}|name=Town and city|group=note}}{{cite book |last1=White |first1=William |title=Directory of Leeds, Bradford ..., 185 |date=1854 |location=Sheffield |page=20|oclc=1184562375}} A new site was needed as the old burial ground at Leeds Parish Church was severely overcrowded, with gravediggers having to smash the coffins of those already interred to fit newer coffins in.{{cite news |last=Woodward |first=Grant |date=13 November 2004 |title=Burying history |newspaper=Yorkshire Post |id={{Gale|A182302089}} }} The site, when chosen, was in far more rural location than now, aside from the modern-day Leeds urban area - it was surrounded by fields and brick kilns, an industry that Burmantofts was known for in the 19th century.{{cite book |last1=Jackman |first1=Paula |editor1-last=Webster |editor1-first=Christopher |title=Building a great Victorian city : Leeds architects and architecture, 1790-1914 |date=2011 |publisher=Northern Heritage Publications |location=England |isbn=9781906600648 |page=262 |chapter=14: Walter Samuel Braithwaite (1854-1922)}} During the preparation time, evidence was found of coaling and ironstone activities at the site, with many bell-pits having to be filled in.{{cite news |title=Industrial biography |work=The Bradford Observer |issue=1,556 |date=3 December 1863 |location=Column C |page=7}}

The site was divided into two areas; the north-west was for dissenters, and the south-east was for the Anglican dead. Both entrances had their own gatehouse designed by a team of local architects (Chantrell and Shaw).{{cite web |title=Beckett Street Cemetery |url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1358580&sort=4&search=all&criteria=unmarked%20graves&rational=q&recordsperpage=10&resourceID=19191 |website=www.heritagegateway.org.uk |access-date=19 December 2022}}{{cite book |editor1-last=Webster |editor1-first=Christopher |title=Building a great Victorian city : Leeds architects and architecture, 1790-1914 |date=2011 |publisher=Northern Heritage Publications |location=England |isbn=9781906600648 |page=394}} the twin lodges at each entrance, followed later in 1880, being designed by Leeds architect, Walter Samuel Braithwaite.{{cite book |last1=Jackman |first1=Paula |editor1-last=Webster |editor1-first=Christopher |title=Building a great Victorian city : Leeds architects and architecture, 1790-1914 |date=2011 |publisher=Northern Heritage Publications |location=England |isbn=9781906600648 |page=278 |chapter=14: Walter Samuel Braithwaite (1854-1922)}} A survey in 1998 established that the cemetery has 180,000 burials, 27,000 graves, and 8,000 monuments.{{cite news |last1=McClarence |first1=Stephen |title=A very grave business |work=The Times |issue=66311 |date=19 September 1998 |page=95|issn=0140-0460}} Of these, 72 are Commonwealth Graves from both the First and Second World Wars.{{cite web |title=Leeds (Beckett Street) Cemetery {{!}} Cemetery Details |url=https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/46215/leeds-beckett-street-cemetery/ |website=cwgc.org |access-date=10 December 2022}} Also present is the grave of one of the survivors from the Charge of the Light Brigade, Frederick Short, whose gravestone is adorned with crossed sabres, the Shako headgear of the brigade and the text stating "one of the 600."{{cite news |last=Wainwright |first=Martin |date=25 October 2004 |title=Pride may have doomed Light Brigade |newspaper=The Guardian |id={{Gale|A123591219}} }} Short's grave is on what is known as Light Brigade Row, near to another participant in the Crimean campaign, William Notley.{{cite journal |last1=Hughes |first1=Gavin |last2=Trigg |first2=Jonathan |title=Remembering the Charge of the Light Brigade: its commemoration, war memorials and memory |journal=Journal of Conflict Archaeology |date=2008 |volume=4 |issue=1 |page=51 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |doi=10.1163/157407808X382755 |s2cid=161431952 |issn=1574-0773}} In 1849, 1,600 victims of a cholera epidemic in Leeds were buried at the site in mass graves.

In the 1880s, the idea of charging only a guinea for a burial led to the phrase Guinea Graves. Many of those who were buried in these graves were from the workhouse opposite the cemetery (now the site of St James' Hospital).{{cite news |last=Rosser|first=Ian |date=15 October 2002 |title=Girl's grave statue is rescued again|newspaper=Yorkshire Evening Post |id={{Gale|A182245478}} }} Each name was recorded on a collective headstone that housed many bodies in the grave beneath it.{{cite news |last1=Vallely |first1=Paul |title=The gangster and the cherub |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-gangster-and-the-cherub-1197486.html |access-date=19 December 2022 |work=The Independent |date=11 September 1998}} During the nineteenth century, burials were an average of 3,000 per year, but this amount slowed significantly after the First World War.{{cite journal |last1=Hosgood |first1=Chris |title=Reviewed Work: To Prove I'm Not Forgot: Living and Dying in a Victorian City by Sylvia M. Barnard |journal=Victorian Review |date=1991 |volume=17 |issue=2 |page=90 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |issn=0848-1512}} The site was closed to new burials in 2001, and is now managed by the Friends of Beckett Street Cemetery.{{cite news |editor-last1=Mitchinson |editor-first1=James |title=Corner of Yorkshire, Beckett Street Cemetery, Leeds |work=The Yorkshire Post |date=10 December 2022 |location=Yorkshire Post Magazine |page=7|issn=0963-1496}}

A proposal for a Leeds Supertram network in the early 2000s, would have seen the cemetery destroyed to provide space a for a tram stop adjacent to St James' Hospital (opposite the cemetery). After cancellation of the supertram project in 2005, Leeds City Council awarded the site £150,000 for repairs and maintenance, with one councillor describing the cemetery as a "hidden gem".{{cite news |title=Cash boost for historic cemetery |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/4770334.stm |access-date=21 December 2022 |work=BBC News |date=3 March 2006}} In 2015, the West Yorkshire Archive Service digitized the burial registers from 1845 to 1987 on the ancestry.co.uk website.{{cite web |title=Beckett Street Cemetery Records Online! |url=https://wyascatablogue.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/beckett-street-cemetery-records-online/ |website=wyascatablogue.wordpress.com |access-date=12 December 2022 |date=21 October 2015}} Besides being on the National Register of Parks and Gardens,{{NHLE|desc=Beckett Street cemetery |num= 1001605|grade=II|access-date=21 December 2022 }} the site also has two listed buildings; one a memorial stone which commemorates members of the Kidney family, who were Steeplejacks in the area. The structure is grade II listed {{convert|3|m|adj=on}} high industrial chimney.{{NHLE|desc=Beckett Street Cemetery Monument to Sarah Kidney |num=1256308 |grade=II|access-date= 21 December 2021}} The second structure commemorates the Gailli family, and is also grade II listed.{{NHLE|desc= Galli Family Memorial in Beckett Street Cemetery at Ngr 3202 3465|num= 1256309|grade=II|access-date= 21 December 2022}}

{{Location map|United Kingdom Leeds 1866

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|caption = An 1866 map of Leeds showing Beckett Street Cemetery top right {{nowrap|(8px)}}

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|coordinates = {{coord|53.813|-1.524}}

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• John Wormald Appleyard
• Sir John Barran, 1st Baronet{{cite book |last1=Wrathmell |first1=Susan |title=Leeds |date=2005 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=London |isbn=9780300107364 |page=223}}
• Tom Maguire{{cite news |editor-last1=Mitchinson |editor-first1=James |title=McCluskey to speak at memorial lecture for city union organiser |work=The Yorkshire Post |date=17 January 2019 |page=10|issn=0963-1496}}
• George Thompson (abolitionist){{cite ODNB|first=S. J.|last=Morgan|title=Thompson, George Donisthorpe|id=27261|date=23 September 2004}}
• Jabez Tunnicliff
• John Grimshaw Wilkinson{{cite web |title=John Grimshaw WILKINSON |url=https://www.beckettstreetcemetery.org.uk/people.php?p=21 |website=www.beckettstreetcemetery.org.uk |access-date=27 December 2022}}

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{{Commons category-inline|Beckett Street Cemetery}}

{{Cemeteries in England}}

{{Authority control}}

• [https://www.beckettstreetcemetery.org.uk/ Friends of Beckett Street Cemetery]
• [https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/8999/?geo_a=t&geo_s=ca&geo_t=uk&geo_v=2.0.0&o_iid=41016&o_lid=41016&o_sch=Web+Property Ancestry.co.uk search page for Beckett Street Cemetery (may require access behind a paywall)]

Category:Cemeteries in West Yorkshire

Category:Cemetery art

Category:Leeds