Bestwood Village St Mark

Cemetery

View of the Cemetery

There is no churchyard as such, but the nearby cemetery was founded around the same time as the church and has always been associated with it.

The Nottingham Evening Post 6th October 1885 reported that:

The Duke of St Albans has recently given an acre of land near the Bestwood colliery and adjoining the main road to Papplewick for burial purposes, and has promised to plant a number of shrubs and trees in the cemetery as soon as the Bestwood Coal and Iron Company have completed the erection of the fence, which latter operation was commenced last week.

This gift of land will prove a great convenience to the colliery population in the neighbourhood as the churchyard where interments have hitherto taken place is situate nearly two miles from the colliery workmen’s houses.

It was later reported

Bestwood Notts. Consecrated Burial Ground.

16th June 1886. The Bishop this day consecrated a piece of land situate at Bestwood in the County of Nottingham and Diocese of Southwell, with the usual formalities on the petition of John Lancaster of Bilton Grange Rugby in the County of Warwickshire Esquire, James Snelus of Workington in the County of Cumberland Esquire, Byron Lord Ronald of Kensington in the County of Middlesex Esquire, and Archibald Stewart Hawthorne, Clerk M.A. Vicar of the Vicarage and Parish Church of Bestwood aforesaid the trustees for the time being under or by virtue of the Indenture of Conveyance thereof. The sentence of Consecration was read by the Registrar, signed by the Bishop and ordered by him to be registered.

Selected Memorials in the Cemetery

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

SAMUEL CARTER

THE BELOVED HUSBAND OF

SARAH ANN CARTER

WHO WAS KILLED AT BESTWOOD COLLIERY

DEC 6TH 1898 AGED 56 YEARS

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

ALSO

SARAH ANN CARTER

WHO DIED OCT 15TH 1912

AGED 63 YEARS

IN

LOVING MEMORY OF

JOSEPH H. HOLLINGWORTH

ACCIDENTALLY KILLED AT

BESTWOOD COLLIERY

APRIL 16TH 1935

AGED 27 YEARS

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

HARRY

THE BELOVED HUSBAND OF

DOROTHY E. BLAGG

WHO DIED FEB 25TH 1936

FROM INJURIES RECEIVED

AT BESTWOOD COLLIERY

AGED 43 YEARS

Graves maintained by the Imperial War Graves Commission

IRIS CARTER

WREN WRNS 74213

HMS PEMBROKE 1

25TH MARCH 1947 AGED 23

755776 SERGEANT

E. BARRATT

AIR GUNNER

ROYAL AIR FORCE

4TH MAY 1941 AGED 21

L/Cpl

THOMAS. WHITBY

16th SHERWOOD FORESTERS

22ND JUNE 1917 AGED 25

The cemetery also contains the grave of the Rev John Nicholls.

It is still in use for burials, and also has a garden of remembrance.

Of the first twenty interments in the cemetery twelve are under the age of two years.