Arnos Vale cemetery in Bristol has reopened by the Lord Mayor of Bristol Cllr. Christopher Davies following a £5m restoration project.
The ceremony included a procession led by a horse-drawn hearse, which made its way through the gates, and up Ceremonial Way towards the restored Anglican Chapel, where the Lord Mayor, assisted by staff from Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust planted a yew tree outside the Anglican Chapel. Local Schoolchidren then placed a Victorian immortelle at the base of the tree.
The ceremony concluded with tours of the chapel and the Spielman Centre - a former Non-conformist chapel – and its museum.
Founded in 1839, the cemetery has been transformed into an important wildlife, family history and education centre thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Bristol City Council, English Heritage and others.
It occupies a 45-acre site to the southeast of Bristol and was established and managed by the Bristol General Cemetery Company until Bristol City Council bought it under a compulsory purchase order in August 2003. It has been the site of more than 300,000 burials in 50,000 graves, with nearly 103,000 cremations taking place in the crematorium that opened in December 1928 and had its licence to operate withdrawn by the Home Office in 1998. The crematorium has since been demolished.
The entrance lodges and two chapels were designed by Bristol-based architect Charles Underwood. The chapels are of contrasting designs: the Anglican is in a Roman Italianate style, while the Non-conformist one apes a Greek temple.
English Heritage has listed 25 of the cemetery’s memorials as being of historic and architectural importance. The most notable must be to Raja Rammohun Roy, the celebrated Indian reformer and philosopher. He died in 1833 and the memorial is a chattri, not dissimilar to but more elaborate than the one erected on the Downs near Brighton to commemorate the open air cremations in 1915. Other interesting memorials include one to Thomas Gadd Matthews (1860), the train carved on Harry Edwards’ headstone and the obelisk to Henry Melsom (1866).