In the course of the Industrial Revolution within the first half of the nineteenth century, town of Bradford in West Yorkshire underwent a dramatic transformation from a rural market city with a inhabitants of about 13,000 individuals to an industrial powerhouse with a inhabitants of over 100000 individuals. Consequently, town struggled for many years with burying their useless, particularly after a cholera epidemic in 1849.
To alleviate the strains on the native churchyards the place individuals had been historically buried, a bunch of native businessmen shaped an organization to function a non-public cemetery on a hill northeast of central Bradford within the neighborhood of Undercliffe. Opening in 1854, the cemetery would turn into a really prestigious place to be buried.
Many notable nineteenth and early twentieth century people from Bradford and West Yorkshire are buried within the cemetery, together with a number of of Bradford's mayors and different notable politicians, retailers, industrialists, sportsmen, artists, and performers. The cemetery was so well-liked that burial websites close to the promenade had been bought for significantly excessive costs, and rich households purchased up a number of plots throughout the cemetery.
A number of the monuments erected within the cemetery had been fairly elaborate, and 6 have been given Grade II listed standing, together with an Egyptian themed mausoleum that includes two sphinxes at its entrance. One other notable spotlight is a monument known as the White Girl, which incorporates a reclining girl cradling a child that references the risks of childbirth within the Victorian period. Nevertheless, not all of the monuments are fairly so visually excellent. One unconsecrated part of the cemetery was utilized by Quakers for his or her burials beginning in 1855, and their grave markers consist of easy, uniform flat gravestones.
Whereas Undercliffe Cemetery was held in excessive esteem in the course of the second half of the nineteenth century, burials declined beginning within the 12 months 1900, and by the Nineteen Sixties, the numbers of burials decreased a lot that the cemetery started experiencing extreme monetary difficulties. The corporate working the cemetery was liquidated in 1977. For a quick time frame, the cemetery was owned by a property developer, however after public campaigning, the cemetery was acquired by the native authorities in 1984.
Right this moment, the cemetery is operated and maintained by the Undercliffe Cemetery Charity. The cemetery not solely preserves a big a part of Bradford's heritage but additionally serves as a peaceable park for the native residents, offering quiet locations with views of the Bradford cityscape beneath.
