Old Cemetery

About Old Cemetery

Opposite the car park is the Old Cemetery which can be accessed via a set of steps from either High Street or Albert Road. This is an extraordinary place which became full of cholera epidemic victims in 1849 when more than 100 people died in only six weeks. As a result, the cemetery had to be relevelled. The level was raised by about two metres and a new cemetery was made on top of the old one the vertical gravestones being used to build up the retaining wall of the elevated section and the horizontal stones simply buried some of the inscriptions on the vertical stones are still legible. The cemetery has since been cleared of tombstones.

To the right on entering the cemetery from High Street is an old thatch house partially concealed by bushes whose walls incorporate many tombstones. This replaced an earlier watch house on the other side of the entrance which was removed when the cemetery was re layered these watch houses were used by guards on the lookout for ‘body snatchers’ who were known to be at work in the area.