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The History of creating Margravine Cemetery
The account below was prepared for a talk given to the Friends in 2007 by Anne Wheeldon, the then archivist for Hammersmith & Fulham Archives & Local History Centre.
Read on and you will find human touches amongst the history, including references to black eyes, intoxication, and the use of 'gross language'!
Background
Until the mid nineteenth century the majority of burials in London and surrounding areas took place in churchyards. As the population increased the churchyards became overcrowded and unsanitary so in 1852 an Act of Parliament was passed "to amend the Laws concerning the Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis" (15 & 16 Viet c85).
An Order in Council of 24 October 1853 stated that burials in the parish churchyards of Hammersmith were to be discontinued at end of 12 months, although the churchyard of St Peter, Black Lion Lane, was reprieved for 18 months. The main burial ground in Hammersmith, that of St Paul, was closed in November 1854, leaving Hammersmith Vestry with the problem of finding a new site.
It has to be said that the Vestry did not seem to treat the matter with great urgency. It did set up a Burial Ground Committee which asked if the government would permit part of Wormwood Scrubs to be used for interments (7 November 1853) and Kensal Green Cemetery Company expressed their willingness to sell seven acres land adjoining the cemetery at £700 per acre (13 February 1854). Nothing came of these suggestions although the Kensal Green land became St Mary's R C Cemetery.
Hammersmith continued to operate without a burial ground for the next 15 years, burials of residents taking place in adjoining parishes, such as St Mary, North End and All Saints, Fulham.
The search for land
By 1863 the situation was becoming pressing and Hammersmith Burial Board was elected on 24 June with a remit to resolve the situation. Advertisements in newspapers for land resulted in offers from Tooting and Leatherhead but these were rejected as being too remote. Various sites were proposed including Stamford Brook, Chiswick, Willesden, Old Oak Common, Ealing, Wormwood Scrubs (a recurring favourite), Hampton, and parts of Fulham Fields, but difficulties arose not least by objections from residents. One deputation from owners and residents of property in Goldhawk Road against a burial ground at Stamford Brook, 6 July 1864, stated that it would reduce the value of their property, prevent new houses being built, and affect the purity of wells. Also in some cases the land was unsuitable -heavy clay, waterlogged.
In August 1866 the Fulham Board of Guardians (the poor law authority for Hammersmith and Fulham) urged the necessity for immediate provision of a burial ground especially as there was a cholera outbreak in the area. Fulham Vestry had opened their own burial ground in 1865 - Fulham Palace Road Cemetery.
Finally, in September 1866 the Hammersmith Burial Board agreed to purchase just under 10 acres of land in Fulham Fields to the east of Fulham Union Workhouse from Thomas Roberts, at a cost of £600 per acre. The transaction took 18 months to complete.
A few months later the Board also bought one acre of land to the west from Joseph Yeldham in order to construct an improved approach to the proposed burial ground. A mortgage for £14,000 (a not inconsiderable sum) was taken out.
Both pieces of ground were in use as market gardens and orchards and the tenants were given notice to quit after the next year's crops had been harvested.
Building the cemetery
On 21 June 1867 plans of ground and buildings were submitted to the Board by George Saunders, a local surveyor and architect. A wall was to be erected around the ground and two chapels (Church of England and Nonconformist) and two lodges built. The builder was William Palmer who caused the Board problems by inconveniently dying in March 1869 without putting his finances in order.
The ground was laid out in consecrated and non consecrated portions. Burials in brick graves were only to be allowed in the Avenue approach. It was estimated that the total ground would provide about 12,000 grave spaces.
There was discontent from non Anglicans that a disproportionate amount of land was being given over to the established church. A deputation from Nonconformist ministers in August 1869 resulted in more unconsecrated ground and a larger nonconformist chapel. On 22 November 1869 the Bishop of London consecrated the Anglican chapel and a portion of the burial ground and three days later, on 25 November 1869, the cemetery opened for interments.
Staff
The first superintendent was Robert Bland, who was also the parish clerk and sexton. He found that £50 per annum did not compensate for the increased duties and resigned three months later.
Seventeen candidates were considered for the post, which came with accommodation, the lodge in Margravine Road, and Thomas Cooper was appointed to begin work on 1 February 1870 at a wage of 25 shillings per week. The family, together with a young servant, were living in the lodge in Margravine Road in the 1871 census.
After Thomas Cooper's death in May 1876 there were 21 candidates for the vacant post, one from as far afield as Port Isaac in Cornwall. The Board appointed William Grimes, aged 39, from Brompton, a decision they may have lived to regret as Mrs Grimes was not a temperate woman. A complaint was made that on Christmas Day 1879 the superintendent's wife refused admittance to a relative wishing to place a wreath on a grave and "was intoxicated, used gross language, and created a crowd." The superintendent denied that his wife was drunk but admitted that she had used bad language, adding that she ''was very excitable and that he had great trouble to control her."
After other incidents the Board had had enough and Superintendent Grimes was asked to resign. He left on 12 March 1881, probably with regret as the job was a desirable one judging by the 131 applications that were received for the post.
The Board also had trouble with the grave diggers, who made repeated demands for higher wages. They were a belligerent bunch. In March 1870 there were complaints of the ''use of intemperate and unbecoming language by one of the gravediggers towards an undertaker." In April 1877 a quarrel between two gravediggers in the tool house at the cemetery resulted in one of them sporting a black eye.
Accommodation was provided for grave diggers in the south lodge at Field Road, and, after it was built in 1887, the new lodge in Margravine Gardens. The wife of the grave digger was to act as the gatekeeper for this new entrance to the cemetery.
West Lodge around 1870 Margravine Road (for the Superintendent and his family and servant)
South Lodge Field Road 1887 (for the grave diggers)
Extending the cemetery
The cemetery was extended in the nineteenth century. In 1876 four and a half acres of ground were purchased for an extension on the eastern side. Two and a half acres of this was exchanged with Sir William Palliser for a similar amount on the south side of Cemetery Avenue. Although the exchange was completed in 1880 the Board had difficulty in getting Palliser to complete the wall along the eastern boundary as agreed. Despite the threat of legal action the work was still unfinished at the time of his death in 1882.
An exchange of land was proposed by the developers Gibbs and Flew in April 1883. By this the Board acquired land north of the Avenue abutting Margravine Road.
Despite this expansion, the cemetery was becoming filled rapidly. In 1904 the Works Cartage and Cemetery Committee of Hammersmith Borough Council, who had taken over the administration from the Burial Board, reported that ''the existing cemetery in Margravine Road will in all probability be sufficient for the requirements of the Borough for about ten years, but in view of the rapid manner in which land within a reasonable distance is being taken up for building purposes, and of the increasing value of such land, we are strongly of opinion that no time should be lost in securing sufficient and suitable land for a new cemetery." 32 acres of land in Lower Richmond Road, Kew, were purchased for £31,000.
It took 20 years for the new Hammersmith Cemetery to be opened and in the meantime all available land at Margravine Cemetery was put to use. In September 1923 thirty five residents in Palliser Road and Palliser Court petitioned the Council complaining of the stench and other annoyances emanating from the cemetery. Interments were being carried out at the extreme eastern end in ground previously used as a pathway.
Mortlake Cemetery opened on 4 March 1926. By October of that year only about 33 private grave spaces remained in the consecrated ground at Margravine Cemetery. These were to be reserved for the burial of long-standing residents who had rendered outstanding service to the borough.
World War II
In 1939 a surface air raid shelter was erected at the cemetery. The cemetery was bombed three times during the war in September and November 1940.
At 3.10 am on 16 September 1940 two high explosives and an oil bomb landed on the cemetery. "Further damage" was caused on Saturday 9 November at 9.15 pm. One bomb exploded in Section 26 causing extensive damage to a considerable number of memorials . There was also damage to the roof and windows of West Lodge; the roof, windows and ceilings at South Lodge; and panes of glass were broken in the greenhouses. (ref: Civil Defence (Emergency) Committee 13 November 1940 (p.322))
On 25 November 1940 the Civil Defence (Emergency) Committee reported that a bomb dropped on boundary railings on the east side of cemetery causing damage to the wall, greenhouses, graves (it mentions "crater") and the Superintendent's house.
Post WWII
In 1951 Hammersmith Metropolitan Borough Council decided that Margravine Cemetery should be converted into a Garden of Rest as, due to various circumstances, many of the grave spaces were in a neglected condition and some memorials and tombstones were dilapidated, much to the detriment of the general appearance of the cemetery. The conversion involved the removal of memorials and tombstones, which were sunk on each grave below ground level, the levelling of the grave spaces and the laying of grass lawns with flower beds and shrubs. Before each section was dealt with, the registered grave owners were approached and given an opportunity to object to the proposals, and where objections were received the grave was left untouched.
A faculty was obtained from the Diocese of London in 1953 to close and demolish the Church of England chapel at the east end of the main avenue. The Nonconformist chapel was repaired and refurbished.
Despite some local protests, work continued section by section and by September 1965 several thousand grave spaces had been levelled or removed. Certain graves are protected, such as those administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and a number of monuments are statutorily listed.
There have been over 83,000 thousand interments. Some of these were re-interments from other graveyards.
In 1874 the Wesleyan Chapel in Waterloo Street (now Macbeth Street) was sold to the London School Board. The gravestones from the chapel burial ground were removed to Margravine Cemetery and placed in a line in the south east corner with an explanatory stone in the adjoining wall.
About 46 coffins from St Paul's Churchyard, Queen Caroline Street, were removed to the cemetery in 1960 when the pedestrian subway was constructed.
Some interments were temporary, such as the removal to America of the remains of George Stevens who had been killed at Olympia while working for Barnum & Bailey. His body was exhumed on 1st January 1890.
The exhibitions at Olympia brought overseas performers and workers, some of whom are buried in the cemetery, including an Eskimo child, who died in January 1900.
Many local undertakers conducted interments in the cemetery. One of the most prolific was W S Bond who had a number of branches in the area.
"Angels' Corner" is a poignant group of small tombstones re-erected together near octagonal brick tool shed, formerly a mortuary. [Is now known to be a Reception House and is Grade 2 listed]. These are graves of infants who died around 1928 to the early 1930s. Inscriptions include "Loved by everyone and missed by all"; Sonny Sidney James Jenner aged 10; "An angel took my flower away yet I will not repine, For Jesus in his bosom wears, The flower that once was mine “ (Eileen Mary Aldred aged 5 ½ - how touching that '½ ').
The majority of the surviving monuments line the path of the main Avenue:
Young family mausoleum (only one in cemetery). Frederick Harold Young, 1884* (see John Sheppard's survey)
Stone chair and Corinthian column of Fletcher family - James Frederick Fletcher (1860-1924), resident of Hammersmith for 40 years, member of Borough Council and Fulham Board of Guardians.*(see John Sheppard's survey)
Vignette of Abraham (Abe) Smith( (dl 923) "for many years gold digger Mount Browne NSW" in his digger's hut with epitaph "A kindly and a cheerful heart/A smile for young and old/A mind content, a cheery word/ A heart of purest gold" (see John Sheppard's survey)
Pillowed bed of Sextus Van Os and wife, 1918*(see John Sheppard's survey)
George & Caroline Broad, 1904* (see John Sheppard's survey)
Memorial to Thomas Chamberlen (d 1912), Mayor of Hammersmith, erected by public subscription* (see John Sheppard's survey)
Sir William Bull, 1931* (see John Sheppard's survey)
Under a tree near the western wall at the rear of St Dunstan's Road is the stone mound and cross erected to the eleven women and two men killed in an explosion at Blake's Muniment Factory, Wood Lane, in November 1918.
Wall of Remembrance 1st and 2°d World Wars
A memorial to the staff of J Lyons & Company who gave their lives in two world wars was moved from north Greenford and rededicated in the cemetery in October 2002. J Lyons of Cadby Hall was a major employer in the borough from the 1890s to 1983 and many names on the memorial were Hammersmith residents.
The 16 ½ acres of Margravine Cemetery provide a green space of peace, a welcome sanctuary in a crowded and busy area.
Anne Wheeldon [Archivist]
Hammersmith & Fulham Archives and Local History Centre January 2007
At the end of her talk, 30 items from the archives were on display
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