Histon Road Cemetery, Cambridge

Histon Road Cemetery, formerly Cambridge General Cemetery, is a cemetery in north Cambridge, England, lying off Histon Road, opened in 1842.Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire (1970), p. 232. It is notable as one of only three designs by John Claudius Loudon, who covers it in detail in his influential book On the Laying Out, Planting and Managing of Cemeteries (1843);[https://books.google.com/books?id=fFMTsGML4dcC&q=histon Google Books partial posting], plan discussed p. 67. the other cemeteries associated with Loudon are Bath Abbey Cemetery, and Southampton Old Cemetery (where his plan was rejected). These experiences of practical planning directly affected Loudon's writing on the subject.{{Cite web |url=http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=477&pop=1&page=3&Itemid=1 |title=John Claudius Loudon - father of the English garden - Parks and Gardens UK |access-date=2010-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311101452/http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=477&pop=1&page=3&Itemid=1 |archive-date=2012-03-11 |url-status=dead }}

File:Lodge at Histon Road cemetery.jpg

Plan

File:Histon Road Cemetery plan (1843).jpg

The site is approximately 1 hectare in area (1.25 ha in some sources). Loudon used plans for the Histon Road cemetery as illustrative of his views on cemetery design. Research has indicated that the actual work carried out on the cemetery, which opened in 1843 (the year of his death), does not correspond closely with Loudon's announcements.{{Cite web |url=http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,1754/tab,description/Itemid,/ |title=Parks and Gardens UK |access-date=2010-11-07 |archive-date=2012-03-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311101421/http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,1754/tab,description/Itemid,/ |url-status=live }}

According to the Parks and Gardens UK website, as part of the rationale for including Histon Road Cemetery on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest at Grade II*:

The cemetery embodies Loudon's most important ideas on cemetery design and is an early example of the grid pattern layout adopted for many later cemeteries.

The buildings were by the architect Edward Buckton Lamb; Lamb had been an associate of Loudon from the early 1830s, when Loudon employed him as a draughtsman.{{cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=201906|title=Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA Architect Biography Report (April 3, 2018, 9:50 pm)|first=David|last=Goold|website=www.scottisharchitects.org.uk|access-date=November 7, 2010|archive-date=October 16, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016000518/http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=201906|url-status=live}} They comprised a chapel (demolished in the 1950s) and a Lodge that is now a private residence.{{Cite web |url=http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,1754/tab,summary/Itemid,293/ |title=Parks and Gardens UK |access-date=2010-11-06 |archive-date=2012-03-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311101329/http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,1754/tab,summary/Itemid,293/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=http://www.cambridge2000.com/cambridge2000/html/0004/P4060540.html|title=Cambridge 2000: Histon Road: cemetery lodge, 60-62|website=www.cambridge2000.com|access-date=2010-11-06|archive-date=2011-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110404062112/http://www.cambridge2000.com/cambridge2000/html/0004/P4060540.html|url-status=live}} The chapel with its "very elegant stained windows" was mentioned in the diary of Joseph Romilly. The design as built was Gothic and made of white brick, not in the Italian style put forward by Lamb and Loudon. The chapel contained a memorial dated 1851 to Ebenezer Foster (1777-1851) and his wife Elizabeth, by James Rattee.City of Cambridge, vol.2 p.303 (1959), Royal Commission of Ancient Monuments

The Lodge and gates are now Grade II listed buildings.{{cite web|url=https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/histon-road-cemetery|title=Histon Road Cemetery - Bereavement Services|website=Bereavement Services|access-date=2022-03-15|archive-date=2021-11-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103053209/https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/histon-road-cemetery|url-status=live}}

Management

Histon Road Cemetery was one of the first British cemeteries open to all.http://www.eaareports.org.uk/Assessment%20postMed.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314182350/http://www.eaareports.org.uk/Assessment%20postMed.pdf |date=2012-03-14 }} at p. 6. The first was Rosary Cemetery, Norwich (1821).{{cite journal |last1=Elliott |first1=Brent |last2=Loudon |first2=J. C. |last3=Meller |first3=Hugh |title=Reviewed work: On the Laying out, Planting, and Managing of Cemeteries |journal=Garden History |date=Spring 1982 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=92–94 |doi=10.2307/1586855 |jstor=1586855 }}

The cemetery was initially (1843) the property of the Cambridge Cemetery Company which had been set up on 12 October 1842, by Robert Peters of Downing Street, Cambridge;{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/annalsofcambridg04coopuoft|title=Annals of Cambridge|first1=Charles Henry|last1=Cooper|first2=John William|last2=Cooper|date=1 May 1846|publisher=Cambridge, Printed by Warwick and co.|via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/index2.php?option=com_parksandgardens&task=site&id=1754&preview=1&Itemid=293 |title=Parks and Gardens UK |access-date=2010-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311101509/http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/index2.php?option=com_parksandgardens&task=site&id=1754&preview=1&Itemid=293 |archive-date=2012-03-11 |url-status=dead }} there had been calls in the local press for more burial grounds for a decade. The policy of the Company made no religious conditions on burials.{{Cite web |url=http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,2292/tab,history/Itemid,/ |title=Parks and Gardens UK |access-date=2010-11-06 |archive-date=2012-03-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311101343/http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,2292/tab,history/Itemid,/ |url-status=live }}

Control passed to the Borough of Cambridge in 1935. The decision to demolish the chapel because of the cost of necessary repairs was taken in 1957. From 2007 the cemetery has been run by Cambridge City Council (Open Spaces) working with its Friends group.{{cite web|url=https://www.deceasedonline.com/servlet/GSDOSearch?AcctView=Login&SrchView=Basic&DetsView=Content&ListSource=Contributors§ion=CONTRIBUTORS&context=CAMBRIDGE&lang=E&sessionid=1248804512|title=Burial records, cremation records, grave maps, genealogy and ancestry at Deceased Online|first=Martyn Hutchby and Wiliam Coppock of Gower Consultants|last=Ltd|website=www.deceasedonline.com|access-date=2010-11-07|archive-date=2011-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709005148/https://www.deceasedonline.com/servlet/GSDOSearch?AcctView=Login&SrchView=Basic&DetsView=Content&ListSource=Contributors§ion=CONTRIBUTORS&context=CAMBRIDGE&lang=E&sessionid=1248804512|url-status=live}}

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains the graves of 12 First World War and 6 Second World War service personnel.http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/36500/CAMBRIDGE%20(HISTON%20ROAD)%20CEMETERY {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221175715/https://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/36500/CAMBRIDGE%20(HISTON%20ROAD)%20CEMETERY |date=2018-12-21 }} CWGC Cemetery report.

Burials

There have been over 8000 burials at the cemetery. A listing of monumental inscriptions was made by Lucy Joan Slater (unpublished, deposited at Cambridge Record Office).

Those interred include:

Mary Bateson (1865–1906){{cite ODNB |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30640 |title=Bateson, Mary |year=2004 }}
Charles Edmund Brock (1870–1938)
Albert George Dew-Smith (1848–1903), co-founder of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company{{acad|DW868AG|Dew, Albert George}}
Alfredo Kanthack (1863–1898), Brazilian microbiologist{{cite journal |title=Alfredo Antunes Kanthack, M.D., F.R.C.P.Lond |journal=BMJ |date=31 December 1898 |volume=2 |issue=1983 |pages=1941–1942 |doi=10.1136/bmj.2.1983.1941 |s2cid=220238132 }}{{cite journal |last1=Benchimol |first1=Jaime Larry |title=Bacteriologia e medicina tropical britânicas: uma incursão a partir da Amazônia (1900-1901) |trans-title=British bacteriology and tropical medicine: an overview from the Amazon (1900-1901) |language=Portuguese |journal=Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas |date=August 2010 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=315–344 |doi=10.1590/S1981-81222010000200008 |doi-access=free |url=https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/3940/394034990008.pdf }}
William Fiddian Moulton (1835–1898)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/articleHL/19432]
Henry Wiles (1838–1930), sculptor.{{Cite web |url=http://wgwiles.com/aboutUs2.php |title=WG Wiles - Other Wiles Family Artists |access-date=2010-11-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718035011/http://wgwiles.com/aboutUs2.php |archive-date=2011-07-18 |url-status=dead }}

Notes

External links

[http://www.histonroadcemetery.org/ Histon Road Cemetery]

Category:Cemeteries in Cambridge

Category:1842 establishments in England

Category:Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in England

Category:Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Cambridgeshire

Category:Edward Buckton Lamb buildings

Category:Cemeteries established in the 1840s