Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

J. Webster, solicitor, 14 St James’s Row: Since May last, I have watched the gravediggers in the parish churchyard very attentively; I have seen them dig and break through coffins, and hide the bones and pieces of coffin under boards, placed at the side of the grave for that purpose, while small pieces of bone, thrown out with the soil, have been trampled under it until the funeral was ended. I have seen thigh or leg bones, arm bones, and pieces of the skull, thrust under the sideboard, and then hidden from the sight by pieces of coffin and lumps of earth. While one is throwing out the soil, it is very common for another to examine it, and then begin trampling out of sight such pieces of the remains of formerly interred corpses as are thrown out with the loose soil. On a warm, close day, with a south, or south-east wind, I dare not keep my office window open; the smell from the churchyard is so offensive as to make me ill for the rest of the day. I have very frequently seen them bale water out of graves, and carry it into St James’s Street, where it was poured down the common sewer. The offensiveness of this was intolerable; so nauseous, so disgusting to the smell and taste, as to have made me ill, on several occasions, for the rest of the day. My taste has been so affected by it, and the nausea so great, as to cause me to expectorate continually from St James’s Street to Victoria Street.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

One marked peculiarity of these churchyards is their situation on elevated ground, which slopes suddenly down from them sometimes on one side, sometimes on another, while the slopes below the level of the yards are covered with houses; the soil is, in a large proportion of the superficial area, a stiff, retentive, wet clay, not suitable for the ordinary purposes of interment; and such is the amount of water at times in newly made graves, that it appears as if there were local springs from which it proceeded, as well as the usual accumulation from the atmosphere..

[St. Peter’s] churchyard has been opened above 700 years, and for 600 years it was the only burial place in Sheffield. It contains 10,999 superficial yards, and the average annual number of interments is 673, or one interment to every 16 square yards. About two-thirds of the surface are stone, favourable for percolation of moisture, the remaining third of shale and clay, the last of which is very wet and retentive. This graveyard is surrounded by inhabited houses on three sides closely, and it is six feet above the level of the houses in some parts. It is frequently necessary to lade the water out of the graves in the clay part of the ground. The drainage in passing into the rock follows the stratification, and sometimes comes out in the streets, while at others it reaches the lower parts of the town, and exudes into the wells from which the poor are supplied with water. At times this churchyard is very offensive, and is said visibly to affect the health of the inhabitants in the the neighbourhood; a large comparative mortality is said to occur near it. In the opinion of able members of the medical profession, it is injurious to the health of the neighbourhood. The drainage from it is most offensive, and can be detected at all the sewer grates near it; and the water which is baled out of the graves is also most nauseous and repulsive. From the crowded state of this churchyard, practices of a very disgusting and indecent kind are resorted to by the grave diggers…

Mr. Wilson Overend gives the following evidence:

Thirty years ago I was old enough to judge of the condition of the parish churchyard. At that time it was so full that it was not possible to inter a body a moderate depth without exhuming others which had been previously buried there: the same proceeding has taken place up to the present tune. This churchyard was the sole place of interment for the inhabitants of Sheffield for 600 years, according to the chronicles of the town, and the burials still continue very numerous in it. I have no doubt that the superincumbent soil-for six feet is composed almost entirely of decomposed human bodies.

Towards Campo Lane, the churchyard is six feet above the street, and that side consists of stone, over and through which the drainage passes by natural drainage to the houses below, continuing its course below the streets (upon whose surface it sometimes shows itself, causing most noxious exhalations) down to the lower parts of the town, where it pollutes the springs from which the poorer class of inhabitants obtain their water. The churchyard is surrounded by houses. The effluvium is sometimes very offensive, and I am satisfied that the health of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood has suffered from it. I need only state that the vicarage, which stands on the upper side of churchyard, has not been occupied by the present vicar of Sheffield for many years, on account of it not suiting his health.

…

Henry Jackson says:

Is Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons; lives in St. James’s row, in the upper side to the Parish churchyard. Has lived in the house he now occupies for many years, and latterly the interments in this churchyard have become a positive source of annoyance, from the turning up of coffins, and the exposure of human remains. Has seen water baled out of the graves, in the clayey portion of the churchyard. Considers this churchyard completely full. The clay portion of it is drained into a common sewer in Church street, and has often had to go out of his way to avoid the effluvia from the fresh-dug graves on [the clayey side] of the churchyard. Considers, as a professional man, that this churchyard is injurious to the public health, especially from the dense and increasing population round it.

J. Webster, solicitor, 14, St. James’s row, Sheffield, states:

Since May last, I have watched the gravediggers in the parish churchyard very attentively; I have seen them dig and break through coffins, and hide the bones and pieces of coffin under boards, placed at the side of the grave for that purpose, while small pieces of bone, thrown out with the soil, have been trampled under it until the funeral was ended.

I have seen thigh or leg bones, arm bones, and pieces of the skull, thrust under the sideboard, and then hidden from the sight by pieces of coffin and lumps of earth. While one is throwing out the soil, it is very common for another to examine it, and then begin trampling out of sight such pieces of the remains of formerly interred corpses as are thrown out with the loose soil.

On a warm, close day, with a south, or south-east wind, I dare not keep my office window open; the smell from the churchyard is so offensive as to make me ill for the rest of the day.

I have very frequently seen them bale water out of graves, and carry it into St. James’s street, where it was poured down the common sewer. The offensiveness of this was intolerable; so nauseous, so disgusting to the smell and taste, as to have made me ill, on several occasions, for the rest of the day. My taste has been so affected by it, and the nausea so great, as to cause me to expectorate continually from St. James’s street to Victoria street…

1046 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Burial (12) ·
• Cemetery (2) ·
• Churchyard (1) ·
• Clay (2) ·
• Coffin (3) ·
• Death (10) ·
• Drinking water (6) ·
• Funeral (25) ·
• Geology (3) ·
• Jackson, Henry (1806-66) (1), Sheffield surgeon ·
• Overend, Wilson (1806-65) (2), successful Sheffield surgeon and lecturer, focus of the 1835 resurrectionist riot ·
• Royal College of Surgeons (1) ·
• Sewerage (1) ·
• 📌Sheffield Cathedral (1), since 1914 the cathedral church of St. Peter and St. Paul, originally Sheffield's parish church of St. Peter ·
• Sheffield Independent (2) ·
• 📌Sheffield (72) ·
• Skeleton (1) ·
• Sputum (1) ·

All tags.

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