Woodgrange Park Cemetary

[jaybelnz]

That's amazing that if it is my Mary Jane, she's in a multiple grave!  This was quite a wealthy family, and where they were living in Lambeth in 1871 census is now a lovely listed building in the Conservation Area of Stockwell!  Maybe the cemetery was already getting filled up!

I so wish I'd had this record before I visited UK last year, when I went to Stockwell to see the house! So yes, I do have the address, it was 14 Burnley Road - Lambeth area in the 1871 census.

So I'm off to check it out! Thanks so much for that!  I'll let you know how it goes!

Jeanne

Just modifying to add  - I'm going to do it in the morning, when I'm a bit fresher!  I'd hate to add a couple of 00's to the payment for the Burial Register entry!

Especially if she turns out not to be my Mary Jane!  😱😱

[smudwhisk]

Probably wise to leave until the morning.  I think the minimum payment for credits is £5 which will get you 2.5 burials, but the credits last for 6 months and can be extended by purchasing more anyway.

I suspect the reason for a multiple grave was lack of money to purchase a private one.  I've one buried in Camberwell Old in 1902 in a semi-private grave, there are only two people buried in it, although the other person isn't a relative.  A great grandmother was buried in a multi-occupancy grave in 1907 in Manor Park, yet the family weren't that hard up (owned their own business) so it was a bit of a shock when we found out.  Since then I've found quite a few in such graves, some were poor, others less so.  I suspect they may have placed less value on private graves when money wasn't that flush than perhaps we do now.  I know when her husband and his second wife died in the 1960s they were in a grave with four others, but it was private as all were family, with the earliest buried there in the 1940s being the daughter from the second marriage.

[dawnsh]

smudwhisk

even though you can't take control of the grave, have you asked the cemetery office to keep your details on file so that they know someone in the family is aware of the grave? Maybe write to them with a recorded delivery letter and ask for a receipt from them when they have read it.

The cemeteries re-use graves where they can prove that they have made efforts to contact living relaties and can't find anyone. This would therefore not be the case for this plot.

[jonw65]

It's already been established that the Mary Jane Matthews who died Dec qtr 1872 Camberwell, was age 0.
Very likely relates to the 25 October burial record at Camberwell Old Cemetery.

Burial registers for Woodgrange Park Cemetery 1894 to 1971 can also be seen on microfilm at the London Family History Centre (currently situated at TNA, Kew)

[smudwhisk]

smudwhisk

even though you can't take control of the grave, have you asked the cemetery office to keep your details on file so that they know someone in the family is aware of the grave? Maybe write to them with a recorded delivery letter and ask for a receipt from them when they have read it.

The cemeteries re-use graves where they can prove that they have made efforts to contact living relaties and can't find anyone. This would therefore not be the case for this plot.

Dawn, Southwark have said they can only update contact details for the grave if we agree to pay for the transfer of ownership.   Dad has been in contact with them via email to ask who they had as contact and it was his Aunt who died in 1972, and, as they only have her maiden name, the only address they probably have for her is probably the old family home which was sold about 1946.  If that isn't actually the case legally, then it suggests they are trying to avoid updating contact details so that they can reuse it.  They have confirmed that the original lease was a 100 years from 1935 when my great grandfather died but they have confirmed they are working to the requirement that if either the lease has expired or 75 years have passed since the last burial, they will reuse it unless we agree to pay for transfer of ownership and register an objection (which I suspect they'll try and charge us for too if the truth be known).

Do you know if there are any statutory rules or something similar relating to this that we could quote at them to try and get Dad made contact for the grave please?

The annoying thing is that about a dozen graves further along the same row is my grandparent's grave (my grandfather was the son and nephew of the other three buried in the other grave and he died in 1944) and they will have contact details for that one, namely my Uncle as he will have arranged interrment of my grandmother's ashes when she died in 1996.

[smudwhisk]

It's already been established that the Mary Jane Matthews who died Dec qtr 1872 Camberwell, was age 0.
Very likely relates to the 25 October burial record at Camberwell Old Cemetery.

Woops, well spotted, save's Jeanne purchasing some credits for nothing.

Burial registers for Woodgrange Park Cemetery 1894 to 1971 can also be seen on microfilm at the London Family History Centre (currently situated at TNA, Kew)

If the family resided in Stockwell as Jeanne has said, they're unlikely I would have thought to have been buried in Woodgrange as its right across the other side of the city.  More likely in Camberwell, Nunhead or another in the area, unless a previous burial at Woodgrange exists and she would have been taken there.

[Jolee]

I too have family there impossible to find, Woodgrange is privately owned, I have be told that they  do what they like, there does not seem to be any rules about this. Councils although they do sell space in unattended graves leave the original burials there, as per my g/grandparents
 
Does anyone know if there are any regulations in private burial areas.

[smudwhisk]

I think Woodgrange may be an special case, possibly because its not very large. 

Manor Park is, from memory, also privately owned but they've not reused a relatives 4 person grave where the last burial was in 1910 (the first in the last 1880s), or they hadn't by the end of 2014 when my parent's were down in the area for another funeral and went had photographed it.

[dawnsh]

Although you will not have rights to the grave in 19 years time, if push came to shove, you might find the grave moved down the list of those ear-marked for re-use as the cemetery office have been in correspondence with you and know you exist. There must be others that can be re-used before yours.

I've found a parliamentary pdf online but I can't attach it here, I'll send it to you by pm.