The photo above shows the entrance gate off Sculcoates Lane to the seven acre site of glebe land allocated as the second detached burial ground for the Georgian St Mary’s church, Sculcoates (parish). The site today is very overgrown and as such is a very interesting nature reserve (although not an official one) and a place where many different wild plants and shrubs may be found. It is bordered on the west by a modern housing estate built on the site of the previous Needler’s sweet factory. Hull City Council occasionally clear a few pathways and, although these can be quite narrow they do not result in the loss of much of the undergrowth.
As some headstones include dates into the 1920s I assume this site did not become a disused burial grounds until, perhaps, the late 1920s or 1930s. My research on the whole issue of parks, cemeteries, recreation grounds etc. has not yet reached that time.
One area of this disused burial ground somewhat clear of undergrowth has rows of low gabled headstones with the indented wording facing east (as was normal but by no means universal). On most the wording is too weathered to be legible but where it can be discerned is generally the names of three people, often children and infants as age at death was recorded, not usually from the same family. This was the cemetery for Sculcoates Workhouse, the complex that evolved into Kingston General Hospital and subsequently again Endevour High School (which building survives but is no longer a school!).
For the burial of three separate inmates the first interment would be temporarily covered, the second also and the third permanently covered so long as this third coffin was at least three feet below surface level. Clearly the inmates of a workhouse would not normally be able to afford a family plot although it may have been possible during an epidemic.
(To be continued – workhouses were not so bad + comparison with the cemetery at De La Pole Hospital (as was) in the parish of Cottingham).
Point of View 3 – Given that the issue raised in nos. 1 and 2 seems to be getting little attention I am very impressed with the global charity ‘animal/EQUALITY’ as they have organised an international petition to press for national governments to campaign for the abolition of ‘wet markets’. I am thinking of moving my support for Compassion in World Farming as am not aware of such a stand by them. Check animal/EQUALTY website if interested.