Norwich – Earlham Cemetery

I’ve never visited Earlham Cemetery before, so I decided to meander along today as part of my walk from the city centre.

This is North Lodge, built in 1855 and this entrance to the graveyard was for religious non-conformists. The building was used by the superintendents, one at each lodge, who resided and worked from the building.

South Lodge, also built in 1855, which came onto the market in 2015 when it was sold by Norwich City Council, after having not been lived in since the 1920s. This was the property used by the superintendent at the Church of England entrance to the cemetery.

These two photos are from the Jewish area of the cemetery.

This is the Catholic chapel, with this and the Jewish cemetery mortuary chapel being the only two nineteenth religious buildings on site left. The beautiful Church of England and non-conformist dual chapel arrangement in the centre of the graveyard were ripped out in the 1960s and replaced by a crematorium designed by David Percival. Percival also designed St. Augustine’s Swimming Pool (since demolished) and the former Norwich Central Library, the one I liked and which unfortunately was destroyed by fire in 1994.

One of the iron grave location markers.

The Commonwealth War Graves area, although there are also some stones of others who died during the First and Second World Wars dotted around the cemetery. I’ve discovered since visiting that there’s an old military graves area, which I didn’t notice whilst meandering around. I’ll have to go back at some point to have a look at that (and I did, more about that here).

The crematorium gardens. And below, just a few random photos from the cemetery grounds. It’s a huge site and although there were plenty of people walking around, it’s such a large cemetery that it still felt quiet and peaceful. A lot of the crosses on graves seem to have been tipped over to prevent them falling, but the general maintenance around the entire cemetery seems excellent.