Municipal cemeteries and crematoria

The following source list was originally available only on paper in one of the West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date. It was designed to act as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject, but may relate only to one West Yorkshire district, or be an incomplete list of sources available.

History

By the mid-nineteenth century, church graveyards in many cases were full. There were a few private 'commercial' graveyards started in the eighteenth century, but it became clear that there was a need for publicly-run graveyards to cope with demand. So, the Metropolitan Interment Act of 1850 allowed publicly-funded cemeteries to be created in London, and this was then extended to the rest of the country by an 1853 Act.

Cremation was not considered to be an acceptable method of disposing of the dead from the end of the Roman era in Britain, up until the First World War. However, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, there was growing support for cremations and the Cremation Society of England was formed in 1874. The society went on to set up the first modern crematorium in Woking in 1878.

Wakefield area: cemeteries and crematoria

Cemeteries

There are 19 public cemeteries in the Wakefield area. They are listed below, with their opening dates and addresses:

Cemetery	Address	Opening date
Altofts	Church Road, Altofts	1878
Alverthorpe	St.Paul's Drive, Alverthorpe	Late nineteenth century
Castleford	Healdfield Road, Castleford	1857
Crigglestone	Standbridge Lane, Crigglestone	1882
Featherstone	Cutsyke Road, North Featherstone	1874
Ferrybridge	Pontefract Road, Ferrybridge	1924
Hemsworth	Cemetery Road, Hemsworth	1896
Horbury	Dovecote Lane, Horbury	1897
Knottingley	Womersley Road, Knottingley	1859
Normanton (Lower)	Cemetery Road, Normanton	1878
Normanton (Upper)	Neville Street, Normanton	1876
Outwood	Leeds Road, Outwood	1873
Pontefract	Skinner Lane, Pontefract	1859
Ryhill	Cemetery Road, Ryhill	1898
Sharlston	Cow Lane, Sharlston	1946
Snydale (Streethouse)	Red Lane, Streethouse	1880
Stanley	Lake Lock Road, Stanley	1886
Wakefield	Doncaster Road, Wakefield	1859
Whitwood	Cutsyke Road, Four Lane Ends, Castleford	1926
Pontrefract	Wakefield Road, Pontefract	1959
Wakefield	Standbridge Lane, Crigglestone	1961

Crematoria

There are also 2 public crematoria in the Wakefield area. The Wakefield crematorium is on Standbridge Lane in Crigglestone and was opened in 1961. The Pontefract crematorium is on Wakefield Road in Pontefract and was opened in 1959.

Records

The records for these cemeteries and crematoria are held by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. Contact their Bereavement Services Department for information.