Cwmgelli Cemetery

Cwmgelli Cemetery, also known as Cwmgelly Cemetery,[1] is a cemetery located in the Treboeth area of Swansea, Wales. The cemetery is listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, where it is designated Grade II for "its historic interest as a small Victorian garden cemetery".[2]

Cwmgelli Cemetery
Details
Established1895
Location
Treboeth, Swansea
CountryUnited Kingdom
Coordinates51.6514°N 3.9433°W / 51.6514; -3.9433
TypePublic
Owned byCity and County of Swansea Council
Size8 acres (3 ha)
Find a GraveCwmgelli Cemetery

History

As far back as October 1888 Swansea Corporation and the rural sanitation authority had earmarked Cwmgelli as the site for a public cemetery.[3] The Corporation purchased a total of nineteen acres (8 ha) of land but only eight acres (3 ha) were used for laying out the cemetery, the remainder was let for farming. The cemetery site was enclosed by stone walls and had space for 6,950 burial plots. Cwmgelli Cemetery was formally opened by Alderman W. H. Edwards on 19 September 1895. The Swansea Journal and South Wales Liberal newspaper noted the land sloped "rather suddenly" from west to east and described the internal roads as a "series of curves, which have the double effect of minimising the gradient, and at the same time dividing the ground in a number of shapely parterres".[4]

Denominational issues

The cemetery was apportioned between Nonconformists and Anglicans who had an equal share over three quarters of the area and the Roman Catholics with an eighth. The remaining eighth was given over to the planting of shrubbery near pathways and a belt of trees alongside the boundary wall.[5]

In 1895 the Swansea Journal and South Wales Liberal stated that Cwmgelli is "the first public cemetery in Wales in which no portion is consecrated". It explained that Nonconformist members of the local council thought it unfair for burial fees to end up in parish church coffers when it was the council funding the laying out of the cemetery. Permission for the cemetery was sought by the council Burial Board but was refused by the Home Office, who imposed the condition that part of the ground be consecrated. The council circumvented the condition by making a second application as a sanitary authority and obtained authorisation from the Local Government Board under different legislation.[4] The Western Mail in 1892 had been critical of the Nonconformist councillors for causing the cemetery to be delayed, saying that "apparently, the dissatisfied section of Dissenters wish to shut the adherents of the Church of England out from carrying out their peculiar rites and ceremonies with respect to the portion [of the cemetery] allotted them".[6]

Features

The cemetery covers around eight acres (3 ha).[7] The cemetery chapel was built in a Gothic style with sandstone dressings and a red tiled roof. The date, 1895, is over the round-arched doorway in the porch. By 1996, it had been converted for other use.[8][9] In 2020 the cemetery was reported to have no remaining burial spaces.[10]

Burials

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists 37 military personnel buried here who died as a result of their service in the First and Second World Wars.[11]

Notable burials

See also

References
  1. "Swansea (Cwmgelly) Cemetery". Wales at War. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  2. Cadw. "Cwmgelli Cemetery (PGW(Gm)60(SWA))". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  3. "Swansea Cemeteries". The Cardiff Times. 20 October 1888. p. 4. Retrieved 21 June 2023 – via The National Library of Wales.
  4. "Swansea's new burial ground". Swansea Journal and South Wales Liberal. 28 September 1895. p. 4. Retrieved 19 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. "Opening of Cwmgelly Cemetery - yesterday". The Cambrian. 20 September 1895. p. 8. Retrieved 22 June 2023 – via The National Library of Wales.
  6. "An attempt is being made by a small section of Swansea county councillors . . ". The Western Mail. 26 January 1892. p. 4. Retrieved 22 June 2023 – via The National Library of Wales.
  7. "Cwmgelli Cemetery". Cwmgelli Cemetery. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  8. "Cwmgelli Cemetery, Treboeth, Swansea (301667)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  9. "Cwmgelli Cemetery Chapel, Cwmgelli, Glandwr (13570)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  10. "Graves reclaimed in Merthyr Tydfil as Welsh burial space reaches 'crisis'". BBC News. 3 February 2020. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  11. "Swansea (Cwmgelli) Cemetery". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  12. Brookes, Geoff (2015). "22 January". Swansea in 100 Dates. History Press. ISBN 9780750963404.
  13. "Annual Report of the County Archivist 2012 2013". West Glamorgan Archive Service. 4 June 2013: 24. Retrieved 13 June 2023. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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