Bath Abbey Cemetery

Extra, extra.

{Bath, England}

It feels like so many cemeteries that I visit have the same backstory: In the early 19th century, the cemeteries in town were filling up, and so a new cemetery was built on the outskirts of town - for health reasons, and to expand burial space.

Bath Abbey Cemetery is no different. Burials had taken place at Bath Abbey for centuries - prominent citizens and parishioners were buried beneath the floor of the Abbey, and underneath the stones of the courtyard, as well. (So many people, in fact, that the floor of Bath Abbey has recently undergone an extensive restoration and repair after the floor was left unstable due to the gaps left by decomposing bodies.)

But by the early 1800s, the cemeteries of Bath were getting full, and so a new cemetery was planned on the hill just outside of town, just below the beautiful National Trust property Prior Park. If you are making the long, slow climb from the center of Bath to the Prior Park entrance, it is a perfect place to stop and break your walk. Which is exactly what I did one late summer afternoon.

I hadn’t planned to visit the cemetery, I just sort of stumbled on it. But I’m so glad I did.

The cemetery was built to ease the strain on burial at Bath Abbey…and now, 175 years after it was opened, Bath Abbey Cemetery itself is full. Closed to new burials. The deceased can still be added to existing plots, but years - sometimes several at a time - go by without any burials taking place. Visitors are few and far between.

Built on a steeply sloping hill overlooking the city, the cemetery is quiet and mostly inactive…and the nature that was tamed into elegance in the 19th century is coming back with a vengeance.