Twerton Cemetery

Location:

Bellots Road, Bath BA2 3RT

Opened:

1882

Status:

Closed

Number of Burials:

8,438

Number of Memorials:

814

Maintenance:

Maintained by the Council

Access:

Iron gates between the lodge and the chapel, on the northern side, give access to the main north-south path.

Entrance with chapel and lodge

The chapel

General view

Extent of Twerton cemetery

In 1881, the Twerton Burial Board considered a plot of land on the Wells Road as a possible cemetery but this was too close to houses to comply with the regulations on burials. Instead a 2½ acre plot was bought from the Trustees of Bellott’s Hospital later that year. In June 1882 the Burial Board considered tenders for building a chapel, lodge and entrance gates. The chapel and a lodge (now a private residence) are either side of the entrance gates.

The southern part of the ground was reserved for Anglicans and this was consecrated by the Bishop of Bath & Wells on Mon 28 Aug 1882.

In September 1882 one of the 14 applicants for the post of gardener was selected. The graves are aligned east-west and the ground is bisected by a double row of trees that run east-west. On the southern side is the railway. It closed in 1937 when Haycombe Cemetery opened.

Layout of Twerton cemetery

The graves are arranged in a grid with rows being designated A-Z and AA-SS. The plot numbers are in the range 1-28 for the consecrated area and 1-38 for the unconsecrated area.

There were about 8,400 burials and 800 memorials. Many of the graves are common ones. About a quarter of burials were for children aged under 11. Those buried were not exclusively from Twerton and a significant number were from Oldfield Park.