Graves and Memorials

Who is buried in the Cemetery

Histon Road Cemetery is closed to new burials but it is sometimes possible to inter ashes in existing graves where there is a family link. For more information about this, please enquire at friendsofhistonroadcemetery@yahoo.co.uk and we will try to put you in touch with the relevant Cambridge City Council Department that can arrange permission.

Of the 3800 burial spaces in the Cemetery, only about 1350 are now marked with any memorial. Some of these are imposing monuments or substantial headstones but there are also many graves marked by a plain kerb or a simple vase with no inscription. The majority of graves have no memorial.

Although the Cambridge General Cemetery Company records state that it would be ‘a Cemetery chiefly for the middle classes of society’, this does not seem to have been the case. Early records in the Burial Register include individuals’ trade or profession and it is clear that the majority were working people from the densely populated area of Castle End and into the town around Magdalene and Bridge Streets. Trades such as shoemakers, brush makers, harness makers, basket makers, brick makers, bakers, brewers, coopers, dyers, tinsmiths, whitesmiths, builders, carpenters, painters are all often recorded. That said, as the Nonconformist burial place for the town, all levels of society are represented from all parts of the town. Indeed, the Cemetery was opened in 1843 ‘for persons of all religious persuasions’, with no ties to any church or parish. Do explore some of these Cambridge Lives.

Of the total of 8245 interments, some 1500 are stillborn babies and infants under one and a further 952 are children between one and twelve. These figures remind us of the high infant mortality in Victorian times and beyond. At the other end of the age range, there are seven centenarians.

War Graves

We have a number of war graves looked after by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and honour these at our Remembrance Day Gathering every year.

Memorials

Looking after the memorials is key, of course. The Friends of Histon Road Cemetery monitor their condition and employ specialist stonemasons to repair them, set them upright and keep them safe and standing. It’s likely the Council would have to lay flat, for safety’s sake, any that start to move as the ground beneath them shifts, but this would radically alter the appearance of our beautiful Cemetery and we are keen to keep the memorials upright where at all possible. Although the Cemetery is closed to new burials (with some exeptions for interment of ashes in existing graves), we advise families on installing replacement headstones or even new ones where a grave didn’t previously have one.