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Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Wisbech (also known as Wisbech Cemetery)

Introduction

Features of Mount Pleasant Cemetery include hedges, a drive, a chapel, a cottage and a rose garden.

In 1881 the Cemetery Chapel, the Cemetery Cottage and the gate piers were all built. The layout of the Cemetery is a rigid grid path pattern with a central drive, which is lined with conifers, evergreen laurels and pine trees. A fine Wellingtonia marks the first cross path where the path is edged with box hedging. The far end of the drive is marked with a further Wellingtonia surrounded by yews. Scots pines, a monkey puzzle tree, variegated hollies and copper beeches are further evidence of Victorian cemeteries planted as arboretums. A rose garden within a clipped beech hedge has now been included to the right of the drive.
Visitor Access, Directions & Contacts
History

In September 1877 the Local Board of Health purchased the new burial ground situated to the north of the Mount Pleasant Bank (a Roman embankment) for the sum of 2,250 pounds. A new cemetery was required under the Burial Act of 1854 as the Church cemetery would be filled in three years. It was noted in a London daily journal that ‘the Corporation's administration was being carried out on enlightened lines, which were worthy of imitation elsewhere'.

Features & Designations

Features

  • Chapel
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  • Rose Garden
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  • Hedge
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  • Drive
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Key Information

Type

Cemetery

Purpose

Cemetery

Survival

Extant

Open to the public

Yes

Civil Parish

Wisbech

References

Contributors

  • Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust