The photo above could almost have been taken anywhere across the country in a municipal cemetery; in fact it is the cover of a book about one specific municipal cemetery in Kings Lynn. Entitled ‘Studies on Hardwick Road Cemetery, Kings Lynn from 1849 to the Present’, edited by Julian Litten, published by the Friends of Hardwick Road Cemetery, 2022. Unsurprisingly perhaps, there are not many studies of specific cemeteries, this one having the virtue of linking specific details to the general trends of the time (context).
Clearly from the chapter which covers the Cemetery’s history decade by decade the author has studied the Corporation minute books for whichever committee had responsibility for local cemeteries, this being what I am doing for the municipal cemeteries and parks of Hull 1860s to 1945. Although the War Memorial is prominent in the picture it became commonplace for each municipal cemetery to have such a memorial as well as higher profile ones in a prominent place in the town.
As well as the History the book adopts a very ‘green’ agenda with chapters on the trees of the Cemetery, the Mosses, the Plant life and the Wildlife, all very systematically listed and based on detailed studies. As well as the inevitable chapter on ‘Notables’ there buried there is one on the local Commonwealth War Graves, a theme I am finding to be more complex than might seem.
Appendix 1 lists the Rules and Regulations and Charges, 1898, an interesting base for comparisons elsewhere. Three further appendices deal with relevant tradespeople locally – Undertakers, Monumental Masons and Florists, the evidence here presumably from trade directories.
to be continued.