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From: "Rob Campbell" <>
Subject: [LAN] Liverpool Graveyards
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 12:58:40 +0100

For those looking for monumental Inscriptions and wonder why they can't be found? This is difficult to take in, we really don't understand or appreciated the conditions our families lived in.
WARNING
For those sensitive or with a week stomach DON'T READ, I feel physically sick and the contents are really playing on my mind.

A report by the Medical Officer of Health 1849
LIVERPOOL JOURNAL 22nd Sept 1849

GRAVEYARDS OF LIVERPOOL

DR . W. M. DUNCAN. M.O.D

References by Dr DUNCAN to the Board of Heath on the condition of the graveyards

Facts

39 burial grounds within the borough

4 in Everton and Kirkdale

3 in West Derby

2 in Toxteth Park

Two have been recently closed, St Mary's Cemetery, Cambridge St and that attatched to the Baptist Chapel, Byrom St

Interments take place in graves, vaults or pits

23 burial grounds graves only

7 graves and vaults only

4 graves and pits

2 graves, vaults and pits

1 pits only

Interments in ordinary years 10,000 to 11,000, two thirds in pits, one third in graves, only 20 bodies annually in vaults.

Sextons state the following graveyards to be crowded or fully occupied, St Nicholas, St Peters, St Paul, St James, Trinity, St Thomas, St Annes, All Saints, St Peters and St Nicholas Catholic chapels. Small cemetery Everton Rd.

In all of theses instances with the exception of two complaints have been made of offensive emanations under certain circumstances.

These ground with exception to the last have been used for more than half a century, St Thomas and St Annes a century, St Peters a century and a half , St Nicholas five centuries. The avarage number of burials in 11 is 650 but in St Johns 500 burials take place a year

The minister of St Johns complains that in warm weather when windows and doors are open for ventilation the effuvia entering from the graveyard is frequently most offensive and overpowering.

The objectionable practice of burying in vaults under chapels is confined to 9 places, St Nicholas, St Annes, Trinity, Christ Church, St Marks, St Marys Edge Hill , St Andrews, St Patricks and St Anthonys Catholic Chapels. In the 7 first mentioned interments have not exceeded 4 annually

The seven burial ground which bodies are disposed of in Pits are those attatched to the Wesleyan Chapel Stanhope St, St Patricks Catholic Chapel Park Rd, St Anthonys Scotland Rd, St James, Necropolis, St Marys Kirkdale and the Parish cemetery Vauxhall Rd.

The pits vary in depth from 18 to 30 ft, being 7 to 12 ft long and 31/2 to 9 ft wide

The number of bodies deposited in such pits varies from 30 in St James and St Marys cemeteries to 120 in St Patricks.

In St James about 6inckes of earth are placed over the coffins after each days interments in others the coffins are covered with 21/2 feet of soil which is removed previous to the next interments, but with these exceptions pits are left open only covered with a framework of boards until filled with coffins over a period of 10 days in the case of smaller to 10 weeks in large pits.

It has been estimated that an acre of ground can accommodate 136 bodies yearly, in 37 burial grounds in Liverpool this number is double.

In some places it is impossible to dig a new grave without disturbing previous bodies. In some the soil when opened up is composed of decomposing human remains in various stages rather than earth. Graveyards impregnated with decaying animal matter must contaminate the atmosphere and injure health.

The grand evil calls most urgently for interference, the practice of burying in pits. In summer more than 100 bodies are collected together in an open pit in all stages of decomposition, some lain there for 2mths. Only 2 feet are left between each pit so that the moisture saturated with the decomposed matter of the adjoining pit frequently percolates into the newly made pit. In no case does the soil covering the pit when filled exceed the legal minimum of 2 ½ feet..

In conclusion the M.O.D REQUIRE THAT FURTHER INTERMENTS BE PROHIBITED IN THE FOLLOWING BURIAL GROUNDS, St Nicholas, St Peters, St Pauls and St Johns and that the practice of interment in pits be regulated to prevent it becoming a public nuisance.

W.H. DUNCAN. M.O.D, 20TH Sept 1849

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