Cemetery - Blyth or Cowpen?

[Sandrafamilytree]

Hoping someone familiar with Blyth might have an answer to this.

I have a couple of family members in my tree, who died in the 1940s and 1950s.

According to funeral announcements in the Blyth News and Shields Daily News, the burials were to be at 'Blyth Cemetery.'

Would this be Blyth Links Cemetery in Links Road?

I initially wondered whether 'Blyth Cemetery' might actually be Cowpen Cemetery, but after searching in the British Newspaper Archive for 'Blyth Cemetery' and for 'Cowpen Cemetery' it does seem as if these specific terms were used for two different places.

Do you think I am correct in that assumption... or was Cowpen Cemetery ever generally referred to as Blyth Cemetery?

Thank you!

[River Tyne Lass]

Hopefully, someone from Blyth will know the definitive answer, Sandra, but I suspect Cowpen may be Blyth Cemetery.
CWGC seems to tag it as such.

https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/73023/blyth-cowpen-cemetery/

I would be interested to know about this too.  Hopefully, a Blyth RootsChatter will know for certain.

[AllanUK]

I've always known Cowpen Cemetery as Blyth Cemetery. My great grandmother (long since passed) used to refer to Blyth Links Cemetery as the seaside cemetery!

[JenB]

I've always known Cowpen Cemetery as Blyth Cemetery. My great grandmother (long since passed) used to refer to Blyth Links Cemetery as the seaside cemetery!

Yes, this NCC link has it as 'Blyth Cowpen' https://beta.northumberland.gov.uk/registration/deaths/cemeteries-in-south-east-northumberland

[Sandrafamilytree]

Hopefully, someone from Blyth will know the definitive answer, Sandra, but I suspect Cowpen may be Blyth Cemetery.
CWGC seems to tag it as such.

https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/73023/blyth-cowpen-cemetery/

I would be interested to know about this too.  Hopefully, a Blyth RootsChatter will know for certain.

Thank you for the link!

CWGC also has Blyth (Links) cemetery as a location. That's the one near the seafront.

I remember, growing up, that my mother used to buy the Evening Chronicle and scour the death notices to find out which relatives and friends had died, and see which funerals she needed to attend. We didn't have a phone so it was an important means of communication.

So when I saw the announcements for Blyth from the 1940s and 50s, and knowing there were at least two cemeteries in operation, got me thinking - the announcement would need to make clear which one, I guess.

[River Tyne Lass]

Thank you Allan and Jen for providing the definitive answer.

That's good isn't it Sandra, that we both know the answer to this at last.

[Sandrafamilytree]

Many thanks to everyone for advice, information and ideas. 

But the thing that I can’t get my head round, is this...

I’m imagining myself in the 1940s and I’m arranging a funeral and putting a notice in the paper.

If ‘Cowpen Cemetery’ and ‘Blyth Cemetery’ are one and the same, and there is no other cemetery, then it doesn’t matter how I refer to it in the newsaper announcement.

But if my relative is going to be buried in Blyth Links Cemetery, I need to make sure the mourners go there, and not to Cowpen.

I know the British Newspaper Archive doesn’t always return search results that we know must exist, but when I type in ‘Blyth Links Cemetery’ there are only 5 results – one from the 1890s (and the article wasn’t about a funeral) and 4 from the 1980s and 90s, where funeral notices specified Blyth Links. Searching just for ‘Blyth Links’ just returns results about the general area/seafront and ‘seaside cemetery’ returns no results for the North of England.

So during the preceding decades, surely there must have been funeral announcements directing mourners to Blyth Links... but I can't find any! Unless, of course, it was referred to as something else entirely 

If that makes sense...!

[River Tyne Lass]

Yes, that does all make sense Sandra.  It is puzzling.  You certainly have a good point, in what you have written.  I hope someone might be able to shed more light on this.

[Sandrafamilytree]

Yes, that does all make sense Sandra.  It is puzzling.  You certainly have a good point, in what you have written.  I hope someone might be able to shed more light on this.

Changing topic somewhat, I've noticed quite a few funeral announcements in the Shields News Guardian, for North Shields residents, where the date and time of the funeral was given, but no cemetery. I'm guessing it must have been so obvious they were to be buried at Preston Cemetery that there was no need to say so.