Records relating to the responsibilities of Bath City Council for cemeteries
Reference Number
BC/16/1
Level of Description
Section
Title
Records relating to the responsibilities of Bath City Council for cemeteries
Date
1859-1947
Description
By the early nineteenth century, many church graveyards were full, and it became necessary to provide new burial grounds. In an attempt to solve this problem, the Burial Act of 1853 enabled parish vestries to establish burial boards, if they so wished, to provide and manage new burial grounds. These burial boards, consisting of between three and nine parish ratepayers, could purchase land for a cemetery and provide chapels; money was to be raised through a precept on the poor rates. In Bath, six burial boards were set up by parish vestries in 1859 (Bathwick, Lyncombe and Widcombe and St James, St Michael's, St Saviour's, and Walcot); a sixth, Weston was set up by 1877, and seventh, Twerton, was set up in 1880.
Later Acts permitted various types of local authorities to set up burial boards, or to take over existing boards. In Bath, the City Council took over all the burial boards in 1911. The records of the burial boards passed to the Council along with their other assets; and while the minutes and other administrative records of the boards themselves cease in 1911, very often the books used in the cemeteries to record burials and fees paid continued in use unchanged after the transfer to City control. For these reasons, the records of the burial boards have been catalogued as part of the City records
The Burial Board Records for the City have been previously Catlogued as BC200 - BC207. Burial Registers for the Cemeteries continued in use by the Council after the end of the Burial Boards and will be listed in BC/16/1/2. Other cemetery records have not yet been catalogued in detail. Please contact the Record Office for more information.
