Eastville Workhouse Burial Data 1895-1914

Introduction

The downloadable pdf listed on this page contains transcriptions carried out by members of Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group (EWMG) of the death registers for Eastville Workhouse for the period November 1895 to July 1914 ^{[ 1 ]}

This work was undertaken after the first release of data by Bristol Radical History Group in 2015 which covered more than 4,000 unmarked burials from the workhouse in nearby Rosemary Green over the period May 1851 to November 1895.^{[ 2 ]}

This current data release, covers the location of burial of unclaimed pauper bodies and where possible details of interment of those corpses that were ‘taken by friends’.^{[ 3 ]} These amount to, in total, 4,743 internments. These burials largely occurred in the municipal Greenbank cemetry and the private cemeteries, Ridgeway Park and Arnos Vale, which have both since become publicly owned.

Figure 1: Location of Rosemary Green burial ground, Ridgeway Park and Greenbank cemeteries relative to Eastville Workhouse (1894-1903).^{[ 4 ]}

Notes on the data

On 20 November 1895, the last burial of an unclaimed pauper inmate took place on the piece of land adjacent to Eastville Workhouse, known today as Rosemary Green, ending more than forty years of interments.^{[ 5 ]} For the next 19 years (1895-1914), the subject of this study, the Guardians of Eastville Workhouse principally turned to nearby private or municipal cemeteries to satisfy their need for burial space. The two main sites were Ridgeway Park and Greenbank cemeteries (see Figure 1).

• Ridgeway Park cemetery, located a few minutes’ walk away at the top end of Eastville Park, was opened in 1888 by a private company and came into public ownership in 1954. ^{[ 6 ]}
• Greenbank cemetery, which lies adjacent to Rosemary Green, was opened in 1871, and in 1895 became the first private cemetery to be taken over by the Bristol Corporation.^{[ 7 ]}
• In addition to these two principal sites, a small number of unclaimed pauper bodies (mainly those of the Roman Catholic faith) were interred in Arnos Vale cemetery in south Bristol.^{[ 8 ]} This private cemetery was opened in 1839 and taken into public ownership in 2003.^{[ 9 ]}
• A small number of unclaimed pauper bodies were given to the medical school for dissection.

Why are we releasing this data?

The aim of the data collection from the death registers for Eastville Workhouse was three-fold:

• To provide a publicly accessible documentary record of those inmates of the Eastville Workhouse interred in private/public cemeteries after the cessation of burials in Rosemary Green in 1895. This will be of assistance to family historians.
• To provide an evidential basis for the studying the prevalence of mass unmarked pauper graves in private and public cemeteries.
• To facilitate further ‘big data’ statistical analysis of those that passed away in Eastville Workhouse.

Download the data…

To save the PDF files to your computer: Right click (‘Control’ click on a Mac) the PDF link and select “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…”, depending on your browser.

Explanations and notes concerning released burial data

• Eastville Workhouse death register transcriptions 1895-1914 – Notes

Transcriptions of Eastville Workhouse death registers 1895-1914

• Eastville Workhouse death register transcriptions 1895-1914 V1.0

Searching these files: With  the file open in your browser or Adobe Acrobat Reader pressing the ‘Ctrl’ key and the ‘F’ key (‘Cmd’ and ‘F’ on a Mac) simultaneously will open a search box, the location of which will depend on the browser you are using but it is normally top left or bottom right.

More files for subsequent decades will be added as they are compiled. As existing files are corrected, expanded and updated new version numbers will be issued.