Ten years ago, Ray Hayes drove past Jesmond Old Cemetery not knowing that one day he would be the driving force behind the restoration of this neglected 10-acre site. “It took us eight and a half years to bring about changes here,” he says, sipping on a warm drink inside the small house that used to house the gravedigger’s family.

The cemetery is resting place to many of the Victorian men and women who made the city of Newcastle what it is today: Fenwick, Bainbridge, Dobson, Armstrong, Deuchar, Hancock, Dove, Pumphrey to list but a few.

However the cemetery had become neglected, monuments to these celebrated individuals were overgrown with brambles and ivy, original pathways had disappeared under grass and weeds and a number of the Grade 2 listed structures were in a state of disrepair. But in 2008, Hayes and fellow volunteers of the Friends of Jesmond Old Cemetery formed a partnership with Newcastle City Council to help restore and conserve the cemetery.

What the cemetery looked like when Hayes and other volunteers began working

Designed in an informal garden style for people to wander and walk around, the cemetery is now used to host tours and talks to increase awareness of its heritage and history. And this summer, the cemetery will have interpretation boards in the shape of monuments that will tell the story of the cemetery and its important Victorian men and women.

According to Hayes, this year’s annual general meeting of the National Federation of Cemetery Friends will be hosted by Friends of Jesmond Old Cemetery on June 9th 2018 at Jesmond Cricket Club. He estimates it will be attended by more than 80 people and will be preceded by a tour of the cemetery and a musical promenade with local musicians and bands who will be singing songs at different headstones.

Perhaps the most surprising finding is that the cemetery, which was thought to be full because of the wild growth and inaccessibility, isn’t close to full. “We reckon there might have been more than 50 burials in the last 10 years alone and we estimate that it will be another 20 years before this cemetery is full,” says Hayes, who is a senior lecturer in nursing at Northumbria University.

The group has been working hard to conserve wildlife inside the cemetery which is part of a larger wildlife corridor. Yellow boxes have been placed on walls for masonry bees, grey squirrels not seen in the cemetery before are thriving now, and so too are butterflies. “There is a visiting fox as well,” says Hayes. The Friends group is currently working to ensure that sandstone rather than tarmac is used to re-build pathways in the cemetery.

Boxes for bees to thrive in the cemetery

In terms of vandalism, the group occasionally finds bottles that have been thrown over the walls.  “One other thing we would like to work on are the monuments that were laid down by the council after a young boy lost his life in a cemetery in Yorkshire when a headstone fell on him. But it’s a mammoth and very expensive task to raise them and we would have to get in touch with families of the buried if we wanted to raise them again.”

Some of the monuments that were laid down by the council as precautionary measure

Friends of Jesmond Old Cemetery receives requests from all over the world from people wishing to find out about the graves of relatives. While clearing wild growth, the group discovered the headstone of Muriel Evelyn Robb, who won the Wimbledon Championship in 1902 and used to practise at Jesmond Lawn Tennis Club. “The older graves give more information such as occupation and even where the person lived,” says Hayes.

According to Cllr Kim McGuinness, cabinet member for culture and communities at Newcastle City Council, the role of volunteers and friends groups across the city are invaluable. “Over the past decade the city council has developed a good community relationship with the Friends of Jesmond Old Cemetery,” she told JesmondLocal. “The joint working has made Jesmond Old Cemetery a more accessible location not only for people visiting friends and relatives buried in the cemetery but the site is a local space used by local people.

“The Friends of Jesmond Old Cemetery have done a great deal of historical research, and help to raise awareness and promote the community resource far and wide. They assist with the restoration, conservation and respectful enjoyment of the cemetery. This all adds up to increasing the overall visitor experience. We would like to thank the Friends of Jesmond Old Cemetery for their continued work and support.”

Massive improvement in the cemetery with regular clearing of brambles and ivy