Smallcombe Cemetery

Smallcombe Cemetery is situated on the edge of Bath, Somerset, England, in a valley between Widcombe Hill and Bathwick Hill. The cemetery consists of two distinct parts, the Anglican section known as St Mary's Churchyard and the non-conformist section known as Smallcombe Vale cemetery. They are sometimes known together as Smallcombe Garden cemetery. The two cemeteries have been closed to new burials since 1988 and they are maintained by Bath and North East Somerset Council. The Bath Corporation assumed responsibility for both cemeteries in 1947. In 1977 the caretakers lodge, described as The Lodge, Bathwick Cemetery, BA2 6DD, was sold for £800 without water or drainage.

This churchyard is situated at the end of a private road leading from Horseshoe Lane, Bathwick. The Duke of Cleveland released the land at the southern end of Sydney Buildings for the St Mary the Virgin Churchyard which replaced the previous churchyard situated on the corner of Bathwick Street and Henrietta Road which had been closed in 1825.

Thomas Fuller (1823–1898) was employed as the architect with George Mann as the builder of the Anglican Mortuary Chapel. It was Grade II listed 2008. The corner stone of the Chapel was laid on 9 May 1855 and the consecrated ground opened for burials in 1856. The consecration of the land by the Bishop of Bath and Wells took place on 15 Feb 1856 and this was reported in the Bath & Cheltenham Gazette of 20 February 1856. In 1907 the original St Mary the Virgin Churchyard was extended by a further six sections.

The Mortuary Chapel was made redundant in 1992 and was sold by the Church authorities at auction in 2007 for £70,000. It has lain derelict since that time.

The Smallcombe Vale cemetery opened in 1861 or 1862 and was administered by the Bathwick Burial Board. The non-conformist Smallcombe Vale Chapel was designed by Alfred S Goodridge. It was Grade II listed in 2011.

Smallcombe Cemetery contains the graves of a number of notable people, including: Frederick Weatherly composer of Danny Boy and Roses of Picardy amongst many other well-known songs; the parents of the poet A. E. Houseman and their seven children and Wallace Gill, architect and the son of the architect John Elkington Gill. The Housman memorial was restored by the Housman Society in 2003.

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