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In 1930, a crematorium was added to the 1857 chapels of the Woodvale Cemetery off Lewes Road, Brighton. It was the first crematorium in Sussex.

This is the main path through the Brighton and Preston Cemetery. Heavily wooded, undulating terrain in peaceful valleys formed an "ideal landscape" for Brighton's elaborate Victorian-era burials.

The English coastal city of Brighton and Hove, made up of the formerly separate Boroughs of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, has a wide range of cemeteries throughout its urban area. Many were established in the mid-19th century, a time in which the Victorian "cult of death" encouraged extravagant, expensive memorials set in carefully cultivated landscapes which were even recommended as tourist attractions. Some of the largest, such as the Extra Mural Cemetery and the Brighton and Preston Cemetery, were set in particularly impressive natural landscapes. Brighton and Hove City Council, the local authority responsible for public services in the city, manages seven cemeteries, one of which also has the city's main crematorium. An eighth cemetery and a second crematorium are owned by a private company. Many cemeteries are full and no longer accept new burials. The council maintains administrative offices and a mortuary at the Woodvale Cemetery, and employs a coroner and support staff.

Until the mid-19th century, by which time Brighton was already growing rapidly as it developed from a fishing village into a fashionable seaside resort, its only burial places were around St Nicholas' Church, the ancient parish church; a Presbyterian chapel nearby; and the Quaker Friends Meeting House in the old town. The Jewish community soon established their own burial ground; soon afterwards, a new Quaker cemetery was laid out; and the Brighton Extra Mural Company founded the first private cemetery in the town. A similar situation existed in Hove and its westerly neighbour Portslade, where pressure for burial space around St Andrew's and St Nicolas' parish churches respectively resulted in the establishment of municipal cemeteries there. In the 20th century, as space became scarce and cremation became more socially acceptable, new and extended burial grounds were established and the Woodvale Crematorium, built in 1930, became increasingly important.

Many structures in the cemeteries and graveyards of Brighton and Hove are of significant historical and architectural interest; reflecting this, many have been listed by English Heritage, the public body responsible for the administration of England's historic built environment. Listed structures include individual tombs, burial vaults, cemetery chapels and various structures at the entrances to the city's cemeteries. In many cases, the historic interest of an individual grave is based on its occupant: many famous people and figures with local and wider importance have been buried in Brighton and Hove since the 17th century, when Captain Nicholas Tettersell (who took the fleeing King Charles II to France) was interred at St Nicholas' Church.

The 20th-century expansion of Brighton and its neighbour Hove brought several villages, formerly outside the urban area, into the area controlled by the boroughs. Ancient settlements such as Ovingdean, Rottingdean, Stanmer, Patcham and Hangleton each had their own parish church with a long-established graveyard.

History

Victoria Cross holders

Six holders of the Victoria Cross are buried in the city's council-owned cemeteries.

Name	Image	Awarded	Cemetery	Notes	Refs
Captain Frederick Charles Booth vc dcm	File:VCFrederickCharlesBoothGrave.jpg	18 February 1917	Bear Road (City) Cemetery	Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
John James Crowe vc		14 April 1918	Downs Crematorium	Find a better ref if poss!
George Gristock vc	75px	21 May 1940	Bear Road (City) Cemetery	Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Lieutenant George Burdon McKean vc mc mm	File:VCGeorgeBurdonMcKeanGrave.jpg	27/28 April 1918	Extra Mural Cemetery	Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Lieutenant-General Sir Wilbraham Lennox vc kcb	File:VCWilbrahamOatesLennoxGrave.jpg	20 November 1854	Woodvale Cemetery	Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Captain William George Walker vc cb		22 April 1903	Woodvale Crematorium	Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

Graveyards and other religious burial grounds

St Nicholas' Church and the western extension

Also remember the northern extension where the Workhouse was

Other parish churches

After St Leonard's Church in Aldrington fell into ruin, its old churchyard may have been bought as private land. It was re-established in 1882 by the incumbent vicar. Local archaeologists have stated that an ancient monastery may have occupied the site, and smugglers' underground passages are rumoured to run beneath the land. Burials include the ashes of actor and cricketer Charles Aubrey Smith and both parents of novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett. Three shipwreck victims and a First World War army lieutenant whose aircraft crashed nearby after a mid-air collision are also buried.

St Peter's Church at West Blatchington also became derelict before being rebuilt in the 19th century. In 1636, the churchwarden reported that "our churchyard is not well fenced ... [for] Tyme out of mynde, it hath not been used for a buryall place". The church was reopened in 1891 and the churchyard came back into use, although 140 square yards (120 m²) were given up in 1934 when a road was built.

Hangleton's ancient parish church, St Helen's Church, stands in a high spot on windy, exposed downland, and its scattered tombs and gravestones are badly weathered. Social reformers Rev. Samuel and Dame Henrietta Barnett (founders of Toynbee Hall) are buried there, as is Sir Hildebrand Harmsworth, 1st Baronet of the Harmsworth newspaper publishing dynasty. The most prominent and ostentatious tomb—of black marble with intricate gold mosaic work, by the south door of the church—is that of Edward Kenealy qc. He unsuccessfully defended Sir Roger Tichborne in the Tichborne Case, a famous 19th-century trial which was the longest in British legal history at the time. He later served as Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent until his death in 1880. His public prominence was such that the tomb was paid for by public subscription.

The churchyard at St Margaret's Church in Rottingdean "still largely retains its village character", and has been extended several times in the 19th and 20th centuries as the settlement has expanded and become part of the wider urban area. An old tithe barn was removed from a field in 1883 to make way for the first extension, to the northwest of the original churchyard. The Marquess of Abergavenny, the main landowner in the area, gave up some of his land in 1905 and 1920 to allow expansion to the northeast; the land used in 1920 had been part of the garden of the original vicarage (a private house by that time). The garden of another private house became part of the churchyard in 1955, although it has been left as a lawn and is not used for burials: Edwin Jukes, owner of Norton House, donated the land, which is surrounded by a wall. Burials in the churchyard include Edward Burne-Jones, his wife Georgiana (née MacDonald), their author granddaughter Angela Thirkell and the music hall actor G. H. Elliott. Thirkell's grave-marker is an unusual wooden board—a style popular in the 18th century but rarely seen on modern graves.

Stanmer Church (now redundant) has been associated with the Earls of Chichester (Pelham Baronetcy) for more than 300 years. They owned Stanmer House, the single-street estate village of Stanmer, the extensive park and woodland, and the church. Many Pelhams are buried in the churchyard. Two yew trees among the graves survive from the time of the original medieval church, and the churchyard also has a Grade II-listed flint-built wellhouse with a donkey-wheel for drawing water from the ground.

St Nicolas' Church at Portslade is described as having "one of the most tranquil and best maintained churchyards in Brighton or Hove." For such a large and populous parish (Portslade was more important than neighbouring Hove for much of its history), (that ref is in Middleton 1979, I think) it covers a small area; bodies appear to have been buried on top of each other in several places, especially near the chancel where the ground rises substantially. In its earliest days the churchyard was fenced rather than walled; the present flint walls apparently date from the 17th century. Several prominent local families have large and elaborate memorials and vaults: the Georgian-style Buckoll family gravestones near the church porch are "one of the chief glories".

Ovingdean, Patcham, Preston

Hanover Chapel burial ground

Hanover Chapel was founded in 1825 as an Independent place of worship, and was acquired by the Presbyterian Church of England in 1844. It stood on the south side of North Road, and the high-density slum areas of Durham and Petty France developed around it after Brighton railway station was opened nearby in 1840. The chapel had a large burial ground on the south side, which was built on the site of the local barracks hospital. In 1845, the Brighton Town Commissioners demolished many of the slums and some gardens to make way for Queen's Road, a direct route from the station to the seafront. The road took land on the west side of the burial ground, although its western boundary wall survives as a raised pavement.

Brighton Corporation (the successors to the Town Commissioners) took responsibility for many open spaces in the town, including the Hanover Chapel burial ground, after the 1884 Brighton Improvement Act was passed. It was maintained as a graveyard until 1949, when it was redesigned as the Queen's Road Rest Garden; this involved digging up the gravestones and placing them around the walls instead. Since 1989, it has been entered through a gateway in Queen's Road; the Brighthelm Centre and United Reformed Church was built next to the old chapel in 1987.

The chapel had a crypt, which served as a wartime air-raid shelter among other uses. In 1981, a set of chambers were discovered; they contained hundreds of coffins and bodies from the early 19th century. Other chambers excavated during 1982 had a mixture of timber and lead-lined coffins, many without plaques or identifying marks and some stored in groups. The remains were photographed and recorded, and details were held at the lodge house of Woodvale Cemetery.

Quaker burial grounds, old and new

Moved to Riflebutt Rd. Closed 1971

Jewish burial grounds, old and new

1824 (?) Thomas Read Kemp @ Ditchling Road. New one @ Bevendean Rd 1919 extended 1978. See pp27/28 of Dale. Extension is COUNCIL 1.5 acres (0.61 ha)

Cemeteries and crematoria

Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery

COUNCIL 16.5 acres (6.7 ha)

Woodvale Cemetery and Crematorium

COUNCIL 20.5 acres (8.3 ha) Formerly Lewes Road Cemetery

Hove Cemetery

COUNCIL 50 acres (20 ha) Quote from "A Short History of Hove" (Frank Willy), 1978, East Sussex County Council (Brighton and Hove Environmental Study Group), Hove (page 29):

"The Old Shoreham Road Cemetery: Many of Hove's residents in the 19th cenutry were retired colonial administrators and Army men. Their tombstones provide a grand record of service in and to Victoria's empire."

Confirmation that the Dyke Railway went up the east side of the cemetery:

Portslade Cemetery

COUNCIL 7 acres (2.8 ha)

Bear Road (City) Cemetery

This 31.5-acre (12.7 ha) site opened in 1868, and no longer accepts new burials. There is a section for the burial of Bahá'í adherents, an area for children and some Commonwealth war graves. Former residents of the St Dunstan's home for blind ex-service personnel of the Armed Forces in Ovingdean are also buried here.

Lawn Memorial Cemetery, Woodingdean

The Lawn Memorial Cemetery is now Brighton's main site for new burials. It was opened on 1 January 1963 on a 9.5-acre (3.8 ha) stretch of farmland on Warren Farm, a stretch downland south of Warren Road on the approach to the suburb of Woodingdean, and now covers 36.5 acres (14.8 ha). There are no chapels, but those at Woodvale Cemetery can be used instead. Quaker and Muslim sections have been laid out in the cemetery. No upright gravestones are permitted: only "lawn-style" burials with flat memorial tablets are available. The 311 bodies of Quakers exhumed from the former burial ground on Rifle Butt Road at Black Rock in 1972 were reburied on land at this cemetery, which is also called the Lawn Memorial Park.

Administration

Brighton and Hove City Council owns and operates the Hove, Portslade, Woodvale, City (Bear Road), Extra Mural and Lawn Memorial Cemeteries, the new Jewish burial ground, and the Woodvale Crematorium. All are open to the public every day of the year; opening hours vary between summer and winter. The Brighton and Preston Cemetery and the Downs Crematorium are privately owned and run by Dignity Funerals Ltd.

The council's Bereavement Services division is based at Woodvale Lodge, one of two entrance lodges on the approach road to the Woodvale Cemetery. Also on this approach road is the Brighton and Hove City Mortuary. In cases where a person has died suddenly, violently or in an unexplained way, the city coroner's support staff transfer the body to this building. Mortuary staff and the city coroner then prepare and examine it. The coroner's office is at Woodvale Lodge; support staff operate from Brighton's main police station in the Carlton Hill area of the city.

Other locations

Workhouses

See NEB

The Chattri

Main article: Chattri (Brighton)

References

Bibliography

• Collis, Rose (2010). The New Encyclopaedia of Brighton. (based on the original by Tim Carder) (1st ed.). Brighton: Brighton & Hove Libraries. ISBN 978-0-9564664-0-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dale, Antony (1991). Brighton Cemeteries. Brighton: Brighton Borough Council. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Middleton, Judy (2003). The Encyclopaedia of Hove & Portslade. Brighton: Brighton & Hove Libraries. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)