General Cemetery Canning Circus & Alfreton Rd.


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For health reasons I regularly do a circuit from Victoria Centre up Talbot Street, through the General Cemetery then the arboretum, through rock cemetery then back down Mansfield Road. Its amazing what a pleasant walk through a great deal of greenery with much wildlife and historic/interesting buildings I keep spotting each day. Its just sad that the amount of rubbish in the general cemetary seems to be multiplying along with a makeshift homeless camp and associated drug paraphernalia. I fill a small carrier bag each time I go with general litter and dispose of it when I get home, its just sad to see such an interesting and pleasant area declining in infrastructure and peoples litter.

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But, I repeat... it's not the dead who can harm you!    I suppose that being a nurse, I saw - and attended to - several dead bodies, so it really doesn't worry me at all.   I saw my first deceased per

Might be of interest       Rog

Nice sentiments Margie.......when my mother passed i was holding her in my arms and singing Mr Sandman''...i felt her presence leave the room,, Donna felt it too,,strange,, but in a way beautiful.....

Can we get back to the General Cemetery? I love your walk Kendaldrac, love going through cemeteries and reading the headstones. My mother in laws family are in a plot there, at least 5 of them, and when the last one went in, he was way down, heaven knows how deep the plot was to start with!

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Katyjay

My Dad was buried in a family grave at Wilford Hill a few months ago, he was a long way down, presumably 6 ft as I think that's the general rule / law. Beneath him are his Dad and 2 brothers. The funeral director told us that there was only 18 inches between them, which doesn't seem a lot really. Anyway, that means that the grave must be 10 - 12 ft deep. There's no more room for coffins but pots of ashes could be buried on top in the future ........ not that I really want to think about that too much!

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Katyjay

My Dad was buried in a family grave at Wilford Hill a few months ago, he was a long way down, presumably 6 ft as I think that's the general rule / law. Beneath him are his Dad and 2 brothers. The funeral director told us that there was only 18 inches between them, which doesn't seem a lot really. Anyway, that means that the grave must be 10 - 12 ft deep. There's no more room for coffins but pots of ashes could be buried on top in the future ........ not that I really want to think about that too much!

My wife and I don`t want to be cremated!

As the High Court prepares to rule on the legality of open-air funeral pyres (? for Hindu funerals wonder if they will get their wives to jump onto the fires also ?)the practice of disposing of bodies by burning is almost as old as the human race itself and has been practised by many civilisations.

Indeed cremated remains found in Australia in 1969 are estimated to be at least 20,000 years old, with the bones bearing the signs of an elaborate ritual.

In 1963 the Pope finally lifted the ban on Roman Catholics seeking cremation and today in the UK only a few religious groups, including Muslims, Orthodox Jews and the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, still actively oppose cremation

Interesting to note,the figures for 2007 show that 72% of deaths in the UK ended in cremation

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Things I have noticed in the General Cemetery is the location of the two former chapels, the (fallen down) plaque to the Old General next to the, what seems to be, closed entrance to Clarendon Street and locating most of the 332 War Graves. On a sadder note I've found the youngest burial to be nine months and its like urban safari in some parts following paths buried beneath the grass.

On the upper section near to Talbot Street the boundary wall is hanging on thanks to some wooden props holding it up and wildlife is abundant throughout if you take the time to notice. Summer has arrived and the poppies are growing along some pathways adding a splash of colour to the landscape.

Litter levels are at a constant level mostly bottles and alcohol related paraphernalia so it is like being Canute holding back the sea but it makes me feel better to do something.

Now if the heatwave would abate just a little I wouldn't feel so frazzled when I came back from my walk.

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If yobbos are being handed out community sentences left right and centre instead of prison, how come there aren't gangs of them constantly clearing rubbish from these places?...Is it really beyond the capabilities of the highly paid judges and politicians to put idle hands to work? (Hmmmm! it probably is.)

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Judge Michael Stokes is not averse to giving out community service, but who knows what work they are allocated once they traipse off with that probation officer?

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  • 1 year later...

Kendaldrac, many thanks for the update on the state of the General Cemetery. I remember as a very small child going for a walk around there with my parents looking for the grave of my father's mother. We did not find it. She died when he was only 6 years old. In 1988 when my mum died I ended up with a mass of family paperwork. It was as though she had left me my homework. Amongst the documents was a burial certificate for my grandmother with a plot number. I had to visit Nottingham for a work related meeting so I made phone calls to the council and managed to fix a meeting with a member of staff first thing in the morning on the day of my trip to Nottingham. I will never forget that day. I drove in through the arch at Canning Circus and parked. The office was to the right of the arch and a very nice helpful gentleman met me. He looked at the burial certificate and said that he had a plan of the cemetery but the burial book with details of the occupants of each grave was lost years ago. He explained that there had been a period of time when the General Cemetery was miss-managed and all the records were lost. He used the map and the grave reference and we walked down and found the area where the grave was. I took photos. There was no headstone. I guess there would have been a wooden cross that had decayed. Burial books give details of headstones and the like. He then said that a few people had been to visit with requests similar to mine. One family came and were very upset when they found that a tarmac path had been put over the grave they were looking for.

Because of the loss of records my grandmother is not in the National Burial Index. I understand that if I contact Nottingham Family History Society with the detail they will get it put into the database. Another job for me to do.

My grandmother's burial certificate says that the ceremony was done by the Minister at Sneinton Methodist Church. I guess this would have had no burial ground of its own so the General Cemetery was used. This Cemetery is a long way from Port Arthur Road where she died so it would have been a lengthy funeral procession. Has anyone got photos of what a hearse would have looked like in 1917, the year she died?

The loss of burial records for the General Cemetery could have been the reason why my father's stepmother had my grandfather buried at the Rock Cemetery in 1955. I have a plot number for that grave but just need the time to visit. On the positive side we recently had a holiday in North Norfolk and visited the Church where my grandfather was christened, and a few years ago we visited Beverley Minster where he married my grandmother. Much happier places and events than graveyards and burials!

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BiboroughShirley

This may be telling you something you already know, but have you contacted the Nottinghamshire Archives for cemetery records? When doing family history research a few years ago, I was able to find details of the General Cemetery and look at layout plans of the site.

http://cms.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/cemeteryrecords.pdf

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A teenage neighbour of ours was given 'community service' a few years ago. What a fiasco! She was picked up in the morning by a probation officer in a car and taken to a park where she was put to painting railings. She made a very poor job of it (according to her) as she was trying not to get paint on her hands. She was brought back at teatime in a taxi and picked up the next morning. This went on for a week and then fizzled out.

Cor - that`ll teach her, eh?

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I helped someone from Somerset get a picture of a grave in the General Cemetery a few years ago. There was no stone, but the staff gave me the general location and put a stick in the ground with a label to show me the exact spot when I got there. I got the impression that cemetery records existed.

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#16 Thanks for helping with this Michael. Very interesting social history. I did a bit more Google searching. looking for Funeral Directors in Sneinton at that time and Lymn had premises in Bath Street opposite the market. The history on the website says that they had horses in 1915. Another possibility is a horse and carriage.

#13 Using the excellent link Cliff Ton gave me I found that the General Cemetery records are going to be put on line. There is a list of burials on the site at present but it is not complete and this suggests there are more.

#18 Thanks DavidA for this information. The council people are very helpful.

These posts give me hope that these records do exist. I guess that the gentleman who met me and helped in 1988 was simply quoting what he had been told. I hope the grave books are found and put on line as I think that my grandmother's first baby, who died as an infant, wll be in the same grave.

It is so good to have all this excellent help and support from fellow Nottstalgia members. A very big thank you to all!

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I did a bit more Google searching. looking for Funeral Directors in Sneinton at that time and Lymn had premises in Bath Street opposite the market. The history on the website says that they had horses in 1915. Another possibility is a horse and carriage.

Lymns are still at Bath Street / Robin Hood Street today. https://goo.gl/maps/Kgq5i Perhaps you could ask them if they have any records?

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This Cemetery is a long way from Port Arthur Road where she died so it would have been a lengthy funeral procession. Has anyone got photos of what a hearse would have looked like in 1917, the year she died?

Found this when I wasn't looking for it. A horse-drawn hearse owned by Lymn's (the name is on the front panel). Obviously from somewhere around 1917.

hearse.jpg

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#21 Hi Cliff Ton. Big thanks for this. I had looked on line and only found photos of very elaborate horse drawn hearses that would have been very expensive to hire. This style and from this undertaker is far more likely to have been used. This all helps me to build up a picture of the times.

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  • 1 year later...

I have found the grave number of my great aunt in the General cemetery Canning Circus. Does anyone know if there's a plan to help locate the actual grave.

Thanks

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I have a plan of that place which might help.   Can't remember where I got it from but it seems to identify plot locations.

 

To see if I can be of any use, what exactly is the plot number you have ?

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