Sheffield General Cemetery

Project overview

Sheffield General Cemetery opened in 1836 and became established as the principal burial ground in Victorian Sheffield containing the graves of 87,000 people. The site today is a Grade II* listed park, a Conservation Area, Local Nature Reserve and Area of Natural History Interest. One of the earliest commercial cemeteries in Britain, it contains the largest collection of listed buildings and monuments in Sheffield, ten in total including Grade II listed catacombs, an Anglican Chapel, with the Gatehouse, Nonconformist Chapel and the Egyptian Gateway. There is the largest single grave plot in the country – a common grave in which 85 bodies were interred. It is also home to many important figures in Sheffield history such as Mark Firth, the steel manufacturer, and Samuel Holberry, the Chartist.

The Cemetery was closed for burial in the late 1970s. At this time Sheffield City Council removed many of the gravestones in the Anglican area to create more green space near to the city centre. The remains of those buried were not disturbed. The Sheffield General Cemetery Trust carries out educational tours and workshops; conservation work to maintain and enhance the monuments, the landscape and the paths; and historical research on the Cemetery and its occupants. The aim is to encourage everyone to enjoy this historical site by walking its paths, learning its history or simply enjoying a quiet, peaceful place. The Cemetery Trust also manages the recently restored Grade II* listed former non-conformist chapel – now renamed the Samuel Worth Chapel after its architect – which is quickly becoming established as a popular venue for arts, music and other cultural events.

Sheffield City Council was awarded £3 million from the joint National Lottery Heritage Fund/ National Lottery Community Fund Parks for People programme. This was as part of a £3.8 million programme of repair and conservation works and also includes a three year activity programme to help more people find out about what makes the Cemetery special.

The General Cemetery was on the Historic England Heritage at risk register, where it was described as “highly vulnerable”. The funding allows the Council to carry out the repair and conservation needed to remove the Cemetery from the heritage at risk register.

The overall project aim was to protect the future of Sheffield General Cemetery Heritage Park as a heritage rich, biodiverse, public park close to the city centre and will ensure that it can be enjoyed and cared for by current and future generations.

 

Heritage & conservation work

Our scope of works on the contract included the work to the catacombs, boundary and internal walls, memorials, paths, signage, lighting, handrails and planting.

Catacombs - this is one of the project areas which has seen the most dramatic change. Considerable structural repairs have taken place to ensure the stability of the catacombs. Our project team removed the concrete balustrade on the top of the catacombs, carefully re-locating the headstones which were displayed there after the clearance of the Anglican side of the Cemetery in the 1980s.In place of the concrete, we created a gently sloping meadow area with a safety rail at the edge of the catacombs.

The existing main carriageway, which was once used as a route for the carriages to reach the chapel, has also been replaced with resin bound gravel which has more resistance to being worn away by heavy rainfall. It was previously dominated by a concrete balustrade which was added in the 1930s as part of a third tier of concrete catacombs. Over time this concrete structure had seriously deteriorated and had also been found to be damaging the stone catacombs below.

Whilst improving the paths, we also repaired drains and added a handrail along this main route. The handrail also has discrete lighting built into it which can be used after evening park events to help people get safely back to the Gatehouse.

The path onto the lower catacombs has also been fully restored, providing safe access to this area for the first time in many years.

Samuel Worth Chapel Steps Repairs - the repairs to the steps were much more complex than initially expected as the balustrades were built on top of the actual steps and had no foundations. The pillars to the steps were “floating”, making it unsafe for the stone masons to continue working without temporary shoring. A solution has was agreed which provided a temporary safe working area meaning the balustrades could be left in situ, so that the long term stability of the pillars or ‘piers’ was protected.

Specialist Subcontractors - We worked collaboratively with our specialist subcontractor, Maysand Limited who delivered the stonework and masonry works providing us with their detailed project experience and bespoke skills to advice on the best methodology for the heritage restoration works which were key to the success of the scheme.

Working in live public open spaces

The park remained open to the public for the duration of the scheme. Our Site Manager liaised with park stakeholders to ensure our works did not disrupt park events and we facilitated the filming of a new movie within the park. We put diversions in place to ensure much of the park was still accessible. We understand the importance of stakeholder liaison on these public open space schemes. Safety and diversion signage was installed throughout the various phases.