Overleigh New Cemetery
This page is divided into three sections – Recommendations for Beginners (which selects a few introductory texts from the sources listed below), Books and Papers, and Websites. Where a book chapter or paper is available for free download, the link has been added under Books and Papers. If you are interested in a website or online PDF I recommend you save it immediately – three that were available when I started writing this series have already vanished so I have had to take down the links. Apologies for any broken links in the future (all the links in this page were last checked on 13th September 2024).
===
Recommendations for Beginners
Curl, James Stevens, 1972. The Victorian Celebration of Death. David and Charles (Publishers) Ltd. (available second-hand, a bit out of date, with art-history focused thinking on the subject, but still a good read)
Flanders, Judith 2024. Rites of Passage. Death and Mourning in Victorian Britain. Picador (an excellent new overview of the subject for the interested public, well-written, well researched, and very engaging)
Frisby, Helen 2019. Traditions of Death and Burial. Shire Library (a short book stuffed full of detail about burial in Britain from the medieval period to modern times)
Heritage, Celia 2022. Cemeteries and Graveyards. A Guide for Family and Local Historians in England and Wales. Pen and Sword (an excellent introduction to how to use cemetery and graveyard data in research projects for people starting out in family and local history research – stuffed full of information and directions to resources)
Rutherford, Sarah 2008. The Victorian Cemetery. Shire Library (another short book in the Shire range, and focused exclusively on Victorian cemeteries)
Swift, Robert 1996. Victorian Chester: Essays in Social History 1830-1900. Liverpool Historical Studies, Liverpool University Press (For a general background into Victorian Chester, I very much recommend this edited volume for coverage of key topics in this period. It is not an overview, as each chapter is written by a different author, but it offers the best insight into some important topics that I have found to date, although excluding the cemeteries).
Yorke, Trevor 2017 (2nd edition). Gravestones, Tombs and Memorials. Countryside Books (a short book, crammed full of information about cemeteries and great for the beginner)
Overleigh Old Cemetery “Interesting Stories.” Friends of Overleigh Cemetery Facebook Page
On the Friends Facebook page Christine Kemp has gathered together graves and their matching stories on a post consisting of 122 images and full descriptions that tell the stories of the people behind the graves, a really good resource for social history
https://www.facebook.com/media/set?set=oa.158399266245041&type=3
Difficult to find, but if you develop serious research interests in extrapolating social history from cemeteries and have access to an academic library with a good archaeology collection, or can find a reasonably priced copy second hand, there is a really good paper in an edited volume in the excellent 1980s New Directions in Archeology series that looks at 19th and 20th century cemetery data: Parker Pearson, Michael 1982. Mortuary practices, society and ideology: an ethnoarchaeological study. In (ed.) Ian Hodder, Symbolic and Structural Archaeology. New Directions in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press. Such a shame that Cambridge University Press do not make these older articles available free of charge for researchers, even though they have all been digitized.
===
Books and papers
Adams, Timothy 2024. Carved in Stone: An Examination of Identity in and Early Regional Cemetery. ANU Historical Journal II, No.4, p.45-67
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane 1994. Dictionary of Christian Art. Lutterworth Press
Behlmer, George K. 2003. Grave Doubts: Victorian Medicine, Moral Panic, and the Signs of Death. Journal of British Studies, vol.42, no.2 (April 2003), p.206-235
Benton, Tim (ed.) 2010. Understanding Heritage and Memory. Manchester University Press
Carrington, Peter 1994. Chester. Batsford Ltd. English Heritage
Curl, James Stevens, 1972. The Victorian Celebration of Death. David and Charles (Publishers) Ltd.
Curl, James Stevens, 1975. The Architecture and Planning of the Nineteenth-Century Cemetery. Garden History, Summer 1975, vol.3, no.3, p.13-41
Donald Insole Associates Ltd. on behalf of Wirral Council 2008. Flaybrick Conservation Area. Appraisal and Management Plan, vols.1 and 2
Flanders, Judith 2024. Rites of Passage. Death and Mourning in Victorian Britain. Picador
Francaviglia, Richard V. 1971. The Cemetery as an Evolving Cultural Landscape. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 61, No. 3 (Sept. 1971), p.501-509
Frisby, Helen 2015. ‘Them Owls Know’: Portending Death in Later Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century England. Folklore, vol.126, No.2, (August 2015), p.196-214
Frisby, Helen 2019. Traditions of Death and Burial. Shire Library
Glazier, Mary. 1996. Common Lodging Houses in Chester, 1841-1871. In (ed.) Swift, Robert. Victorian Chester: Essays in Social History 1830-1900. Liverpool Historical Studies, Liverpool University Press, p.53-84
Graves, Matthew and Elizabeth Rechniewski 2010. From Collective Memory to Transcultural Remembrance. PORTAL. Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies vol.7, no.1
Hannan, Leonie and Sarah Longair 2017. History Through Material Culture. IHR Research Guides. Manchester University Press
Harvie, Christopher and H.C.G. Matthew 2000. Nineteenth Century Britain. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press
Heritage, Celia 2022. Cemeteries and Graveyards. A Guide for Family and Local Historians in England and Wales. Pen and Sword
Herson, John 1996. Victorian Chester: A City of Change and Ambiguity. In (ed.) Swift, Robert. Victorian Chester: Essays in Social History 1830-1900. Liverpool Historical Studies, Liverpool University Press, p.13-52
Hufton, Olwen 2002. What is religious history now? In (ed.) David Cannadine, What is History Now? Palgrave Macmillan, p.57-79
Hurdley, Rachel 2006. Dismantling Mantelpieces: Narrating Identities and Materializing Culture in the Home. Sociology, August 2006, vol.40, no.4, p.717-733
Jones, Owain 2007. Arnos Vale Cemetery and the Lively Materialities of Trees in Place. Garden History, vol.35, Supplement: Cultural and Historical Geography of the Arboretum, p.149-171
Kopytoff, Igor 1986. The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process. In (ed.) Arjun Appadurai. The Social Life of Things. Commodities in Cultural Perspective Cambridge University Press, p.64-92
https://web-facstaff.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Kopytoff_CulturalBiography.pdf
Laragy, Georgina 2013. “A Peculiar Species of Felony”: Suicide, Medicine, and the Law in Victorian Britain and Ireland. Journal of Social History, Spring 2013, Vol.46, No.3 (The Politics of Suicide: Historical Perspectives on Cuicidology before Durkheim), p.732-743
Levy, Joel 2010. The Secret Societies Bible. Godsfield (Octopus Publishing Group)
Loudon, J.C. 1834. On the Laying Out, Planting and Managing of Cemeteries. London.
https://archive.org/details/b24401213
MacDonald, Michael 1989. The Medicalization of Suicide in England: Laymen, Physicians, and Cultural Change, 1500-1870. The Milbank Quarterly
Vol. 67, Supplement 1. Framing Disease: The Creation and Negotiation of Explanatory Schemesp. 69-91
Moen, Marianne 2020. Familiarity breeds remembrance: On the reiterative power of cemeteries. World Archaeology 51: 1, p.35-48
Muziol, Marta 2018. The linguistic space of cemeteries as a reflection of culture – Research suggestion. Style of Communication, vol.10, no.2, p.57-74
https://stylesofcomm.fjsc.ro/past-issues
Miller, Daniel 2010. Stuff. Polity Press
Mytum, Harold. 2003. Artefact Biography as an Approach to Material Culture: Irish Gravestones as a Material Form of Genealogy. The Journal of Irish Archaeology, 2003/2004, Vol. 12/13, p.111-127
Parker Pearson, Michael 1982. Mortuary practices, society and ideology: an ethnoarchaeological study. In (ed.) Ian Hodder, Symbolic and Structural Archaeology. New Directions in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press
Parker Pearson, Michael 1999. The Archaeology of Death and Burial. Texas A&M University Press
Perry, Jaqueline 1996. Cholera and Public Health reform in Early Victorian Chester. In (ed.) Swift, Robert, Victorian Chester: Essays in Social History 1830-1900. Liverpool Historical Studies, Liverpool University Press, p. 119-148
Rugg, Julie 2006. Lawn cemeteries: The emergence of a new landscape of death. Urban History, August 2006, vol.33, no.2, p.213-233
Rugg, Julie 2008. Cemetery. Victorian Review, Spring 2008, vol.34, no.1, p.43-47
Rutherford, Sarah 2008. The Victorian Cemetery. Shire Library
Snyder, Ellen Marie 1992. Innocents in a Worldly World: Victorian Children’s Gravemarkers. In Richard E. Meyer (ed.) Cemeteries Gravemarkers Voices of American Culture. University Press of Colorado; Utah State University
Standford, Peter 2013. How to Read a Graveyard. Journeys in the Company of the Dead. Bloomsbury Publishing
Straka, Tanja M., Maren Misclo, Konstantin J.S. Petrick and Inga Kowarik. 2022. Urban Cemeteries as Shared Habitats for People and Nature: Reasons for Visits, Comforting Experiences of Nature and Preferences for Cultural and Natural Features. Land, August 2022, no.11, 1237.
Swift, Robert 1996. Introduction. In (ed.) Swift, Robert, Victorian Chester: Essays in Social History 1830-1900. Liverpool Historical Studies, Liverpool University Press, p.1-12
Swift, Robert 1996. Philanthropy and the Children of the Streets: The Chester Ragged School Society, 1851-1870. In (ed.) Swift, Robert, Victorian Chester: Essays in Social History 1830-1900. Liverpool Historical Studies, Liverpool University Press, p.149-184
Swift, Robert 1996. Appendix: Victorian Chester: Brief Chronology. Swift, Robert (ed.). Victorian Chester: Essays in Social History 1830-1900. Liverpool Historical Studies, Liverpool University Press, p.231-234
Tarlow, Sarah 2000. Landscapes of Memory: the Nineteenth-Century Garden Cemetery. European Journal of Archaeology 3(2), p.217-238
Thomas, Julian 1999. Cultural and Identity. In Graeme Barker (ed.) , Companion Encyclopedia of Archaeology, volume 1. Routledge
Walker, George Alfred 1939. Gatherings from Graveyards. Longman and Company
https://archive.org/details/b21902963
Warpole, Ken 2009. Living with the Dead: Burial, Cremation and Memory. Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. Winter 2009, vol.98, no.392, Dying, Death and Bereavement (Winter 2009), p.447-456
Williams, Chris (ed.) 2004, 2007. A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Britain. Blackwell Publishing.
Williams, Howard 2006. Death and Memory in Early Medieval Britain. Cambridge University Press
Wright, Elizabetha 2003. Reading the Cemetery, “Lieu de Memoire par Excellance.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Spring 2003, Vol.33, No.2, p27-44
York, Sarah Hayley 2009. Suicide, Luncay and the Asylum in Ninetheenth-Century England. Unpublished PhD, The University of Birmingham (The History of Medicine Unit, School of Health and Population Sciences) December 2009
Yorke, Trevor 2017 (2nd edition). Gravestones, Tombs and Memorials. Countryside Books
Websites
Friends of Overleigh Cemetery Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/233086095052993
Overleigh Old Cemetery – Interesting Stories
On the Friends Facebook page Christine Kemp has gathered together graves and their matching stories on a piece consisting of 122 images and full descriptions that tell the stories of the people behind the graves, a real resource for social history
https://www.facebook.com/media/set?set=oa.158399266245041&type=3
findagrave
findagrave.com
Overleigh Old Cemetery
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2197697/overleigh-old-cemetery
Overleigh New Cemetery
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2421978/overleigh-new-cemetery
Historic England (formerly English Heritage)
Overleigh Road Cemetery – Official List Entry
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001607?section=official-list-entry
Wm Thackery Cenotaph
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1375894?section=official-list-entry
West Chapel in South Part of Overleigh Cemetery
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1375895?section=official-list-entry
The Importance of Historic Cemeteries and Burial Grounds (Historic England December 2017)
https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/caring-for-heritage/cemeteries-and-burial-grounds/importance/
Landscapes of Remembrance (Historic England December 2017)
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/drpgsg-landscapes-remembrance/
Paradise Preserved. An introduction to the assessment, evaluation, conservation and management of historic cemeteries (English Heritage 2007)
This is no longer available from Historic England, as Historic England says that it has been replaced by the List of Registered Cemeteries, immediately below, but the replacement document has none of the discussion of the original document, which is very valuable. You can download it from The Garden Trust site, but if this link vanishes get in touch with me and I will send you a copy of the PDF.
https://thegardenstrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EH-Paradise-Preserved-2007-1.pdf
List of Registered Cemeteries (Historic England 16th January 2018)
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/list-of-registered-cemeteries/registered-cemeteries-list-jan18/
Caring for Historic Cemetery and Graveyard Monuments
https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/caring-for-heritage/cemeteries-and-burial-grounds/monuments/
Commemorative Structures
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/dlsg-commemorative-structures/
Cemeteries, churchyards and burial grounds: devising and applying a significance framework
https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/115-2015?i=15798
Developing Local Assessment Toolkits. By Janette Ray, Julie Rugg, Sarah Rutherford
Louise Loe, Jill Hind, Klara Spandl (Oxford Archaeology) June, 2014
https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/114-2015?i=15797
Developing Local Assessment Toolkits – a scoping study to look at developing a standard model for recording cemeteries and burial grounds. National Heritage Protection Plan: NHPP 4D2 Cemeteries and Churchyards. Project Number: 6358. BY Harold Mytum with contributions from James Cameron and Kate Chapman. Report completed February 2015
https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/7012/DevelopingLocalAssessmentToolkits-ascopingstudytolookatdevelopingastandardmodelforrecordingcemeteriesandburialgrounds
Parks and Gardens
Overleigh Road Cemetery (also known as Overleigh New Cemetery, Overleigh Old Cemetery)
https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/overleigh-road-cemetery
The National Archives
Overleigh Cemetery Records
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/240bfc01-e481-41aa-a53f-798876e1fd74
Commonwealth War Games Commission
Chester (Overleigh) Cemetery
https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/2077826/chester-overleigh-cemetery/
Designing Our First War Graves
https://www.cwgc.org/who-we-are/our-story/designing-our-first-war-graves/
What Kind of Grave Headstones Will I See?
https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/visiting-a-cwgc-site/cwgc-headstones/
Cheshire West and Chester
Chester Characterisation Study
https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/your-council/policies-and-performance/council-plans-policies-and-strategies/planning-policy/chester-characterisation-study
5.9 R. Curzon Park – Character Area Assessment
https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/asset-library/planning-policy/chester-characterisation-study/r-chestercharacterisationstudycurzonpark.pdf
Handbridge Neighbourhood Plan
Documents
https://handbridgeneighbourhoodplan.co.uk/documents/
Survey Report produced by Cheshire Community Action, and commissioned by Handbridge Neighbourhood Forum
https://handbridgeneighbourhoodplan.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/handbridge-np-survey-report-final-version-dec-2023.pdf
The Orthodox Christian Church of St Barbara
https://www.stbarbara.org.uk/
The National Archives
Chester Ragged School Society
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/a529bbdc-3aeb-4c10-99f9-47608c4f2023
Children’s Homes
Chester Ragged and Industrial Schools for Boys and Girls, Chester, Cheshire
https://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/ChesterIS/
The RMS Lusitania Resource Site
https://www.rmslusitania.info/
ArchaeoDeath
Overleigh Cemetery Archaeological Survey 2015: Part 1. By Professor Howard Williams, University of Chester, March 23rd 2015
http://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/overleigh-cemetery-archaeological-survey-2015-part-1/
Trying to see both the memorial ‘wood’ and the ‘trees’: Overleigh Cemetery Archaeological Survey 2015: Part 3. By Professor Howard Williams, University of Chester, March 23rd 2015
http://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/trying-to-see-both-the-memorial-wood-and-the-trees-overleigh-cemetery-archaeological-survey-2015-part-3/
Overleigh Cemetery Archaeological Survey (OCAS): An Open Apology. By Professor Howard Williams, University of Chester, April 23rd 2015
https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/overleigh-cemetery-archaeological-survey-ocas-an-open-apology/
Blacon Cemetery Explored in the Rain – Contemporary Past 18/19 Field Trip 7. By Professor Howard Williams, March 10th 2019
https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/10/blacon-cemetery-explored-in-the-rain-contemporary-past-18-19-field-trip-7/
Discovering England’s Burial Spaces
Home page
https://debs.ac.uk/index.html#section-home
Guidance and Handbook
https://debs.ac.uk/guidance.html
Harold Mytum’s Pages
Historical Mortuary Archaeology
https://hmytum.wordpress.com/historical-mortuary-archaeology/
UK Legislation
The 1847 Cemetery Clauses Act
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/10-11/65/contents
Chester Cemetery Act 1848
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/11-12/100/contents/enacted
Chester Archaeological Society
Professor Robert Newstead F. R. S. By Elizabeth Royles (Keeper of Early History
Grosvenor Museum), December 2009.
chesterarchaeolsoc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/LRoyles-NewsteadLecture_05-12-09.pdf
The Chester Bluecoat Charity
History of the Bluecoat Building
https://thechesterbluecoatcharity.co.uk/history/
Details of individual casualties, where known, N to W on Hoole & Newton World War I Memorial
Arthur Walton
https://btckstorage.blob.core.windows.net/site9057/Wartime/WWI%20N_W%20200425.pdf
Dictionary of Psychology and Mental Illnesses
Collective Memory
https://dictionary.psychologydb.com/collective-memory
The Old Operating Theatre
Victorian Attitudes Towards Self-Murder
oldoperatingtheatre.com/victorian-attitudes-towards-self-murder
The Activisit History Review
Treating Mental Illness in Victorian Britain. By Jade Shepherd, May 19th 2017
https://activisthistory.com/2017/05/19/treating-mental-illness-in-victorian-britain/
The Science Museum
A Victorian Mental Asylum
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/victorian-mental-asylum
Dictionary of Archives Terminology
Collective Memory
https://dictionary.archivists.org/entry/collective-memory.html
Friends, Families and Travellers
Cemeteries and Burial. Culture and Traditions for People from Traveller Communities with regards to cemeteries and burying the dead. FFT Report by Gemma Challenger (n.d.)
https://www.gypsy-traveller.org/resource/cemetery-culture-and-traditions-for-people-from-the-traveller-communities-with-regards-to-cemeteries-and-burying-the-dead/
Based in Churton 