An additional point re the last blog’s consideration of the common features of public parks and municipal cemeteries is that in 1904 Kingston upon Hull Urban Sanitary Authority combined the two previously separate committees for Burials and Parks, henceforth known as the Parks and Burials Committee.
The picture above shows the south-west corner of Castle St. disused burial ground (s.p.b.), the steps giving access from the burial ground to the head of Railway Dock. The lamp-post just visible is one of two on the site recorded at the Humber Historic Environment Record, Northumberland Avenue, Hull, the record stating that there are ‘Two lamp-posts at Trinity Burial Ground, Hull’ … ‘rare examples of historic street furniture. Early-mid 19th century – fluted cast iron column, fluted cross-bar (lamplighter’s ladder rest), inverted bowl base set on an octagonal plinth. Fragment of lantern extant on only one’.
Castle St. detached burial ground was opened in 1783 and closed in 1861. Municipal minutes show that from 1870s onwards the Castle St. disused burial ground was taken under the control of the Parks Committee and managed so as to be, like a park, a place of resort for local inhabitants.
This detached burial ground was created because the churchyard immediately around Holy Trinity church had become so crammed with human remains that it would have been impossible to dig graves without unearthing quantities of skeletal remains. This had become a common problem in churchyards across the Land, certainly by the 18th century if not before. The two parish churches of Hull, Holy Trinity and St. Mary, Lowgate, had a particular problem in this respect as their churchyards were small and hemmed-in by later buildings. A detached burial ground for St. Mary’s was created north of the church in the Trippett area of the town. Both ‘full’ churchyards were henceforth overseen by the Parks Committee to provide places of resort for local people. Initially both Trippett and Castle St. detached burial grounds were sited outside the town’s built-up area, this was to change as the town expanded.