Harton Cemetery M.I's

INTRODUCTION

History of Harton Cemetery, St Georges Avenue, South Shields;-

In the early 1880's the available space in the existing cemetery in South Shields was rapidly being exhausted. In 1884 the Burial Board purchased from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, for £300 an acre, a site of just over 31 acres between Westoe and Harton, just outside the Borough boundary, and to the eastward of Sunderland Road. The total cost, including the purchase and laying out of the land, was £24,000, but it was not until June 2, 1887, that the purchase was completed. It was laid out under the designs of the superintendent, Mr. Bernard Cowan, F. H. S. The cemetery was considered one of the handsomest and most tastefully laid out in the North, being approached from the highway by a broad avenue. The entrance gateway, superintendent's house, and chapels are in the late decorated Gothic style of architecture, the chapels being connected by an open archway, over which is a graceful tower and spire, rising to a height of 103 feet, while there is a small chapel also for the use of the Catholic body, and a separate portion of the cemetery is set aside for the use of the Jewish community. The cemetery was opened on February 2, 1891.

(The above information was extracted from the book ‘The Borough of South Shields’ by George B. Hodgson which was published in 1903.)

The Chapel

Harton Cemetery now covers an area over 50 acres

South Shields (Harton) Cemetery contains 206 scattered burials of the First World War. Second World War burials number 209, more than 100 of them forming a war graves plot in Section 9. The plot also contains 21 non-war service burials and one Dutch war grave.

War graves plot in Section 9

The cemetery suffered heavily during air raids on the Tyneside area during the first years of the Second World War. It was severely damaged on several occasions, both by bombs which fell on it and by a landmine which exploded there in April 1941. Another air-raid in October 1942 caused extensive damage to the cemetery.

The following article from the Shields Gazette, 17/04/06 explains how this website came about;-

Making sure memories live on
A RECENT report by the local government ombudsman warned local authorities like South Tyneside that they need to strike a balance between public safety and public outrage over the laying flat of headstones in local cemeteries.
One man who understands the importance of family gravestones is Jarrow man John Bage, whose website featuring memorial inscriptions from just one borough cemetery is proving a surprise hit with people all over the world.
JANIS BLOWER found out more about it.
THEY live in California, Toronto, in Australia and New Zealand. For most of them it's the first time that they've touched – however vicariously – the physical existence of a grandparent or other relative.
And they pour out their gratitude to John, writing to thank him for preserving this precious part of their family's past.
One correspondent told him: "The world needs people like you, otherwise everything gets forgotten."
So exactly what has the 58-year-old, from Jarrow, done?
His idea of creating an index of the memorial inscriptions to be found in Harton Cemetery in South Shields and publishing it on the world wide web goes back to just over a year ago.
"I was at the cemetery tending to a couple of relatives' graves," said John.
"I had been looking around and noticed that a lot of the gravestones had become worn through weathering, and I realised that many of the inscriptions would be gone for good once they had become unreadable."
Born in South Shields but now living at Fellgate, John's a keen family historian in his spare time – a sharp contrast with his job as a design draughtsman and 3-D modeller for an engineering company that designs and manufactures equipment used for clearing land mines!
He understood how important a source of information memorial inscriptions can be.
"I felt that each one should be photographed and recorded, but Harton Cemetery is so vast it seemed an almost impossible task," he said.
But the project became even more important when he read about the safety testing of headstones that was taking place around the country, and that it was about to begin at Harton.
"When the unstable gravestones are laid flat the weathering of the face is accelerated," said John. "I felt compelled to at least start the recording by doing a section at a time whenever I had a few hours to spare.
"I was surprised how quickly I was able to collect all the photos."
Eventually he had collected more than 12,000 images and set up a website on CommuniGate – a free website-building service. It was an instant success, with the homepage receiving more than 5,000 hits in the first year.
There are now 36 pages and, over a 15-month period, there have been in excess of 35,000 visits to the site, yet the indexing is still only half-complete.
"The other pages as they are loaded up are also having a similar hit rate," said John.
He had intended to send a photograph to those people who made inquiries from the index.
"But I was told that I had to have permission, or that of the grave owner.
"As a result, I now type out whatever inscription there is and e-mail it to the person making the inquiry.
"Many of those who get in touch are relatives of the deceased person, but not necessarily the grave owner.
"I did eventually get permission to use general views on some of the pages, and they are appreciated by those who use the website.
"Many of the comments I receive show that it's not only family historians who are using the index but also ex-pats who want to know how their relatives' graves are etc."
* John's website can be found at: www.communigate.co.uk/ne/harton/index.phtml
janis.blower@northeast-press.co.uk
17 April 2006