On the opposite side of the road to Blyth to the Caravan Park is Whitley Bay’s municipal cemetery (North Tyneside Metropolitan region). This is a very well kept cemetery but nevertheless with clear biodiversity objectives, these achieved by having the main access paths tree-lined (not sure what species of tree but at a common height the main trunks give way to a rather tangled network of branches, see above – deciduous) and linear shrubberies around the perimeter, including a pond. The information board as well as giving a map of the grid-plan of the site highlights the bird-life and wild flowers that may be seen around the site. Therefore Whitley Bay cemetery is a good example of a cemetery as a ‘place of resort’, in turn complimented by a number of benches.
The oldest headstones I could find date from the early 20th century and the chapel and crematorium appear to be of a single building programme which, given that Hull’s municipal crematorium on Hedon Road was the first such and built in the first decade of the 20th century, makes this site an early example. There appears to be just one chapel of rest which would again be pioneering, being a move away from separate chapels for Church of England and Nonconformist worshippers.
However the Jewish section of the Cemetery (see above photo., centre-right section) has its own small free-standing chapel. Jewish headstones tended, in the 20th century, to be quite large, not for ornamental purposes but so that linked family members could all be named. Much of the lettering is in Hebrew and the date of death is often given both as the standard date and the date in the Hebrew calendar, usually a figure in the 5000s. This historically ‘from the beginning of the World’ but now not taken literally. Usually Jewish burials take place as soon after death as possible so the body can be buried without deterioration.
(trio to be concluded by a blog on St. Mary’s Island).