Churchyard and cemetery in an English industrial city: Sheffield, 1740-1900

TY - JOUR

T1 - Churchyard and cemetery in an English industrial city

T2 - Sheffield, 1740-1900

AU - Rugg, Julie Joyce

AU - Stirling, Fiona

AU - Clayden, Andy

N1 - This article won the Dyos Prize for the best paper submitted to Urban History in 2013.

PY - 2014/11

Y1 - 2014/11

N2 - Accounts of nineteenth-century burial practice in England borrow heavily from French historiography, which describes the way that scientific agendas drove a shift from traditional churchyard use to secular, municipal cemetery management. A challenge to this meta-narrative uses the example of Sheffield. In this highly industrialised city, the nineteenth-century did not see a dichotomised translation from churchyard to cemetery: the Church Building Acts (1818) was more effective in meeting burial demand than the 1836 General Cemetery; the formal closure of churchyards did not always lead to a cessation of burial; and by the century’s end, Church burial provision remained substantial.

AB - Accounts of nineteenth-century burial practice in England borrow heavily from French historiography, which describes the way that scientific agendas drove a shift from traditional churchyard use to secular, municipal cemetery management. A challenge to this meta-narrative uses the example of Sheffield. In this highly industrialised city, the nineteenth-century did not see a dichotomised translation from churchyard to cemetery: the Church Building Acts (1818) was more effective in meeting burial demand than the 1836 General Cemetery; the formal closure of churchyards did not always lead to a cessation of burial; and by the century’s end, Church burial provision remained substantial.

KW - cemetery

KW - burial

KW - industrial city

KW - nineteenth century

U2 - 10.1017/S0963926814000285

DO - 10.1017/S0963926814000285

M3 - Article

SN - 0963-9268

VL - 41

SP - 627

EP - 646

JO - Urban History

JF - Urban History

IS - 4

ER -