Removal Of Cathedral Burials

[saw119]

Something that never really entered my head before and now I can't seem to find the answer. Where were all the burials at the Cathedral moved to? I have traced several relatives who were buried in the Parish Church burial ground but can anyone help me out as to where they were moved over the years?

[RichardS]

They will still be there if it what is now the Cathedral.

[Unitedite Returns]

They will still be there if it what is now the Cathedral.

I don't believe that that is necessarily so and I seem to recall that there have in fact been a number of burial removals over the years and re-internment elsewhere.

The most recent was carried out at the time of the construction of the Supertram Stop.

There was probably one that was carried out at the time of the construction of the main entrance of the church at the expanded west end, which added in 1966 when the church was rededicated.

There was probably also one that was carried out at the time of various reconstruction works carried out during the 1880's.

In fact, there have probably been others, that I am not aware of.

[saw119]

I seem to remember some controversy while Supertram was being built as I'm sure I remember that the bodies were dug up and reinterred but I cant for the life of me think where. This picture from another thread seems to show the churchyard swarming with burials

But what happened to them all?

[Edmund]

Leader's "Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century" states that:

"During the extensive restorations of the church at the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was found that the east end stood upon a bed of human bones, so vast that they formed practically its foundation."

The comments of one of the church's neighbours in 1843 show that it was probably necessary to remove an existing burial for every new body arriving:

[History dude]

I believe many of the remains were moved to the public cemeteries such as City Road.

There's an archaeological report done for one grave mentioned on the Sheffield University site that was done in 2006. So any dug up in recent times would have been done under archaeological rules.

In the last few days the Cathedral has issued a press release about the missing coffins of the Earl of Shrewsbury and his clan. 17 in total. They are trying to find them! When the vault was opened up for repairs the coffins had gone!

[saw119]

It was the missing coffins story that inspired my interest in the churchyard burials. I wonder if there is a list ore record of where the bodies were moved to? That newspaper article is quite gruesome.

[neddy]

St Philip burials were moved to Abbey Lane,

Burials Abbey Lane
grave plots list re burial St Philip
1967
1160-1166-28th June
1215-1221- July24-25-26-28
1379-1381- 11 Sep
1436-1441- 4-5 Oct

[ceegee]

I refer to the main report in Sheffield Star dated 6th August 1958. Apparently the soil including bones, teeth etc was removed from the church and deposited in Stradbroke. To be more precise in a garden that wil be for the use of old people. It could only happen in Sheffield.!!

It appears residents in Stradbroke were expressing fears that the soil from the Cathedral contained human remains. The City Engineer stated that every possible precaution had been taken. Somewhere along the line his precautions must have been less that full - local youngsters were amassing sizeble bone collections that they were very keen to show to people.

Of course the problem then as it is now, is that for a full and proper exhumation to be conducted, specialist contractors must be employed. From the report it seems as though the clearance of the churchyard and its contents were undertaken by the Council and its employees. Enough said

[hilldweller]

I refer to the main report in Sheffield Star dated 6th August 1958. Apparently the soil including bones, teeth etc was removed from the church and deposited in Stradbroke. To be more precise in a garden that wil be for the use of old people. It could only happen in Sheffield.!!

It appears residents in Stradbroke were expressing fears that the soil from the Cathedral contained human remains. The City Engineer stated that every possible precaution had been taken. Somewhere along the line his precautions must have been less that full - local youngsters were amassing sizeble bone collections that they were very keen to show to people.

Of course the problem then as it is now, is that for a full and proper exhumation to be conducted, specialist contractors must be employed. From the report it seems as though the clearance of the churchyard and its contents were undertaken by the Council and its employees. Enough said

cathedralgraves06081958.jpg

I've written about this before on several occasions before. One of the "bone collectors" was my step cousin of a similar age to myself.

I don't know where the garden for old folk story came from but the tipping took place to infill the ravine that ran down through the estate after the little brook had been culverted.

To this day the area in question is just flat open grassland. Perhaps it's on the councils "to do" list, after all it's only been 55 years.

HD

[saw119]

I don't mind admitting that I'm a bit shocked by this latest, and rather gruesome, development. It really is quite an incredible disregard for the dead.