Cemetery

Mill Road Cemetery

Please visit the official website about Mill Road Cemetery - www.millroadcemetery.org.uk

Cemetery


Cemetery What and where is Mill Road Cemetery?
Friends of Mill Road Cemetery
Nature
History of Cemetery including parishes covered
Historic Map
Demolished chapel
Current status of the Cemetery
How to trace graves
Listed graves in the cemetery

Photos of wildlife in the cemetery

Bird Song sculptures by Gordon Young

Photos on 2012 Cemeteries Day July 15th

What and where is Mill Road Cemetery?

Mill Road Cemetery is a large and peaceful garden cemetery hidden between Mill Road, Norfolk Street and Gwydir Street, in Cambridge, England. It is owned by the Church of England and maintained by Cambridge City Council.

It is listed by English Heritage in the Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest as a grade II site. There are many beautiful and interesting monuments and gravestones, including eight listed monuments. Please respect the spirit of the Cemetery when you visit: we are sure that you will enjoy it!

Cemetery
Cemetery

Friends of Mill Road Cemetery

The Friends of the Cemetery is a group of local residents, families of those buried in the Cemetery and others who enjoy and take pleasure from Mill Road Cemetery. Their aims are:

  • To protect and enhance Mill Road Cemetery for the public benefit as a place of remembrance, spirituality, history and nature.
  • To speak and act with Cambridge City Council, the trustees and other organisations on behalf of all who care for Mill Road Cemetery as such a place, particularly those who cherish the memory of one buried there.
  • To ensure continued public access to Mill Road Cemetery and to increase awareness, appreciation and enjoyment thereof within the local community and in the wider city.

Email friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com to contact Friends of Mill Road Cemetery, or click here for informations, and a membership form.

Friends of Mill Road Cemetery on Facebook - on Instagram- on Twitter

Nature

The Cemetery has a diverse ecology and is home to a great variety of plants, trees and birds. Chemical free maintenance is practised. The Friends have worked with the Council in instigating alternative grass-cutting regimes that will further increase the diversity within the cemetery.
Cemetery
Cemetery

History of Cemetery

Mill Road Cemetery was consecrated in 1848 as the burial grounds of the parishes of central Cambridge when the churchyards had become full. It was established by public subscription, and held in trust by the parishes, their incumbents acting as trustees. The parishes were:
  • All Saints
  • Holy Sepulchre (the Round Church)
  • Holy Trinity
  • St Andrews the Great
  • St Andrews the Less (including St Barnabas, St Matthew and St Philip)
  • St Bene't (Benedict)
  • St Botolph
  • St Clement
  • St Edward
  • St Mary the Great
  • St Mary the Less
  • St Michael
  • St Paul

Historic Map

This map shows the areas used by the different parishes. The central chapel (marked on the map) was demolished in the 1950's. See below for more on the chapel.

Map of Cemetery

The Demolished Chapel

The Cemetery once housed a chapel in what is now the empty space at its centre. Designed by George Gilbert Scott and completed in 1858, it gradually fell out of use, became unsafe and was demolished in 1954. Its outline is marked by stones.

Cemetery

Current status of the Cemetery

Since 1949, the cemetery has itself been full, and therefore closed except for burials in family graves with space remaining. It is still held in trust, and managed by the Trustees, but its maintenance is the responsibility of the Cambridge City Council. Many graves are still visited and tended regularly. The Cemetery is open every day.

How to trace graves

Those wanting to trace graves may consult the County Record Office in person, where many of the parish registers are held. Written enquiries should include as much detail as possible of name, date and address or parish of the deceased; whether the enquiry is handled directly by the Record Office or referred to a particular parish, a fee may be charged depending on the scale of the search requested.

The County Record Office also has information about the history of the Cemetery, and holds the transcripts of the Cambridge Family History Society, whose members have recorded the names on the graves in conjunction with the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies.

Cemetery





Gwydir Street website