Nottingham Road Cemetery

On 13 August 1850 the Derby Local Board of Health asked all the churches in the town to give evidence as to the state of their burial grounds. The replies are kept at Derby Local Studies and Family History Library and show that the burial grounds in the town could not cope. Rev William Hope, vicar of St. Peter’s Church, reported that “the new burial ground added 25 years earlier is nearly full. The ground has been gone over for at least the fifth time.” This led to the formation, in 1853, of the Derby Burial Board comprising representatives from All Saints, St Alkmund, St Michael, St Peter, St Werburgh, Litchurch and Little Chester parishes.

The Derby Mercury on 16 November 1853 carried a request for land for the purpose of providing a cemetery. It must be within three miles of the market place and not less than twenty acres. On 14 December 1853 the Derby Mercury reported that 30 acres were available to be purchased from the Duke of Devonshire at £250 per acre and that the offers from Sir Henry Wilmot and Messrs Cox were refused. £20,000 was going to be required for the cemetery, as detailed below. (Derby Mercury 15 February 1854)

The gatehouse and chapels were designed in Gothic style by the architect Henry Isaac Stevens (1806-73).
The clock was made by Derby clockmakers, John Smith and Sons.

Mr Stevens is reported in the Derby Mercury on 19 April 1854 as stressing the importance of the division between consecrated and unconsecrated ground, access to each portion of the ground and sufficient space for the arrival and departure of several funerals at the same time. He recommended one general entrance for carriages, opening into a quadrangle with the chapel for the Church of England on the east side, and the chapel for the dissenters on the opposite side.

Some of the materials for construction were brought along the Derby Canal which formed the southern boundary of the cemetery. The boundary was marked by iron railings which still separate the cemetery from the A52, Brian Clough Way.   Some coffins for burial also arrived by canal boat and a wide set of steps that once led from a landing stage can still be seen.

The grounds were planted by John Lee of Hammersmith, London and William Barron. The consecration of the cemetery took place in April 1855 by the Bishop of Lichfield.

The Burial Charges pamphlet from that time shows there were five classes of grave. The cost of a first class grave could be as much as £27 6s 0d (£27.30) whilst the cost of a 5th class grave was 4s 6d (22½p), Although prices were quoted for burial in the catacombs, there were never any interments. In 1871 the decision was made to combine the 4th and 5th class graves and remove the price for catacombs.

The first burial was of Henry George Moseley, a carver and gilder of Babington Lane, Derby, aged 20. He was buried on 1 May 1855 in consecrated ground, plot no 9492, the service being conducted by Rev William Hope, vicar of St. Peter's.

The location of the first (and 24th) burials are marked by this stone
set in the ground at the east corner of zone B2.

Beneath this stone
lie the remains of
Henry George son of
Henry and Harriett Moseley
who died April 26th 1855
aged 20 years
---------------
also of
Rosamund daughter of
Henry and Mary Moseley
who died May 8th 1855
aged 26 years
---------------
… be another as … loved you
[remainder is difficult to read, appears to be...]
Mary Moseley
who died March 17^th
1832 aged 26
Harriett Moseley
who died … 12^th 1846 aged 30

To the left of this stone are two more Moseley family memorials, one embedded in a lime tree and one flat on the ground.

What was allowed on the gravestone was tightly controlled. The 15 September 1869 issue of the Derby Mercury includes a report of the Board meeting detailing discussions on a headstone that provoked comment:
Slowly her earthly frame decay’d;
Her end appeared in sight;
We laid her in the hallowed grave;
With hope in him who died to save.

It was felt to be doggerel and would provoke comments from the visitors to the grounds and destroyed all feelings of thoughtful solemnity. At the time the only additional information to the name and age allowed, were appropriate verses from the scripture.

The following verse was not approved according to Derby Advertiser and Journal of 17 December 1869.
He’s gone to be an angel,
And with the angels stand,
A crown upon his forehead,
And a harp within his hand.

Consecrated, Unconsecrated and General Ground

The cemetery originally covered 32 acres, of which 24 acres were consecrated ground for burials in accordance with the rites of the Church of England, and 8 acres were unconsecrated land for the burial of Catholics, nonconformists and suicides.

Peter Cholerton photographed this little stone in zone B4. It is one of a series that marked the boundary between consecrated and unconsecrated ground. CONSECRATED can be made out in raised lettering. Since November 1910 unconsecrated ground has been designated as General Ground.

The cemetery has been extended on several occasions, including an 8 acre annexe – Nottingham Road New Cemetery – on the other side of Nottingham Road. It now covers 72 acres with over 250,000 people being buried there. There has been a steady decline in the number of burials since the opening of Markeaton Crematorium in April 1956. 1353 burials were recorded in 1955; by 1970 the annual total had reduced to 972, the first year since 1862 when there were fewer than 1000 burials. 1900 was the year with the greatest number of burials - 1915 in total.

War Graves

The cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery with 194 First World War casualties and 134 Second World War casualties buried. This includes servicemen from Australia, Canada and India. There is a small war graves zone which includes the graves of German and Italian prisoners of war. The remainder of the burials are scattered throughout the cemetery, sometimes in family graves. The easiest way to recognise war graves is by the distinctive shape of the headstone as seen in the photograph below.

A Service of Remembrance takes place in Armed Forces zone AF24 on 11 November every year. Deputy Mayor of Derby, Cllr Balbir Sandhu stands on the left in this photograph taken in 2022 by Fred Moss.

Reinterred Remains

Three headstones against the Nottingham Road wall mark the sites of those who were buried at St Alkmund’s Church and King Street Methodist Church, the latter closed in 1961. St Alkmund’s was demolished in 1968 for the construction of the Inner Ring Road. Those buried at both churches were moved to Nottingham Road Cemetery and re-interred in common graves. St Alkmund’s Church is where Joseph Wright and his family were buried. During the re-interment process, the stone covering their tomb was saved and is now in Derby Cathedral.

Lying flat on the ground nearby is a stone to mark the site of remains from St James the Lesser, Ascot Drive which closed in 1980.

In the New Cemetery, surrounded by a low wooden fence, will be found a memorial to Elizabeth Ward, wife of Archer Ward, who died on 26 December 1796 aged 39, Archer Ward, died 22 July 1800 aged 56 and Thomas Ward Swinburn, died 20 June 1825 aged 64.

This is the oldest memorial in the cemetery, preceding its construction by half a century. As all three named lived at Mill Hill House in St Werburgh's parish, this stone is believed to mark reinterred remains from St Werburgh's church.

A Herd of Cows

A herd of cows in a human burial ground? In 1865-67 there was an outbreak of Cattle Plague, now known as Foot and Mouth Disease. It appears that Folly Farm, Chaddesden was one of the farms affected. A herd of infected cows was slaughtered and buried on what was then farm land next to the cemetery. When the farm was bought to enlarge the cemetery, that part of the farm could not be used for burials and has become a car park. St Mary's Retail Park stands on the site of farm buildings.

This page is based on articles by Jean Moss published in Chaddesden Historical Group Newsletters 50 and 53 with additional material by Andrew Bailey (Newsletter 27), Peter Cholerton (Newsletter 61) and Peter Barnes.

Further Information and Useful Links

Official list entry for Nottingham Road Cemetery
Historic England - National Heritage List for England
Excludes the New Cemetery and the postwar extension to the original cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission
for more information about Commonwealth forces casualties.

The Friends of Nottingham Road Cemetery
A group of volunteers interested in the history and improvement of Nottingham Road Cemetery.

Are We Dying to Get In
Richard Wood describes Nottingham Road Cemetery, including his own reminiscences, before going on to mention a few of the 250,000 people who are buried there.

Landslip at Nottingham Road Cemetery
In 1924 a road-improvement scheme on Nottingham Road caused a landslip at the cemetery in which tons of earth fell down into the road, exposing coffins and bones.

Heinz Lindhorst
German prisoner of war buried at Nottingham Road Cemetery following an accident in a quarry near Buxton.

The Engine Driver's Memorial
The grave of Abel Boden, an engine driver on the Midland Railway, incudes a railwayman's epitaph in verse.

Nottingham Road Cemetery and Nottingham Road New Cemetery
www.findagrave.com
This web site is a useful record of monumental inscriptions with over 6,000 memorials photographed at Nottingham Road Cemetery but be aware of its limitations.  The New Cemetery on the north side of Nottingham Road is treated as a different burial ground and incorrectly named Chaddesden Cemetery.  It is actually an extension of the main cemetery with the zone numbers being in the same series and the same burial registers applying to both.  If a search of both fails to find a grave, the likely explanation is that the memorial is so badly eroded as to be illegible, or it has decayed completely to leave an unmarked grave.  If the seach succeeds, the zone and a photograph of the memorial are displayed.

https://derbycity.discovereverafter.com
Search for burial records in all cemeteries maintained by Derby City Council.
Set Cemetery to Nottingham Road Cemetery to restrict the search to this cemetery only.  If the seach succeeds, the zone and plot numbers are displayed together with a map to locate the grave.

© 2025 Chaddesden Historical Group.