paupers Archives - Bristol Radical History Group

Press releases: Standing up for the forgotten & Pauper burials

The following two press releases have been released this week (07 December 2025) and can be downloaded in pdf format here: Press release 1: Bristol Press release 2: National Press release 1: Bristol Pauper burials in private and public cemeteries in Bristol New research – Ridgeway Park, Greenbank and Arnos Vale In 2015, to great public interest, Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group (EWMG) released details of more than 4,000 paupers who had been buried in unmarked graves in Rosemary Green, […]

What lies beneath?

Unmarked burials in private and municipal cemeteries in the Victorian and Edwardian periods

By Roger Ball

Introduction In 2015 Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group (EWMG) released the death records of more than 4,000 inmates of Eastville Workhouse. These were paupers who were buried over the period 1851-1895 in a piece of waste ground adjacent to the institution at 100 Fishponds Road, Eastville, known today as Rosemary Green. The massive public response to the release information about these ‘lost Bristolians’ spurred EWMG and the local community of East Park estate to raise money for two memorials […]

Eastville Workhouse Burial Data 1895-1914

By Roger Ball, Gloria Davey, Di Parkin, Trish Mensah

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 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. This current data release, covers […]

Pauper burials in Greenbank Cemetery – new research

Monday 16 October – 7.30pm-9.00pm - Friends of Eastville Park Community Hub (Nissen Hut), Eastville Park, Near Park Avenue car park, Bristol BS5 6QG In 2015, to great public interest, Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group released details of more than 4,000 paupers who were buried in unmarked graves in Rosemary Green. These were inmates from Eastville Workhouse which was situated on the present-day East Park housing estate on Fishponds Road. The burials in Rosemary Green covered the period […]

Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group – Final Accounts

By Roger

Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group (EWMG) was formed in 2014 after a public meeting with residents of Eastville and Greenbank in East Bristol. The primary aim of the group was to research and publish the names and details of the inmates from Eastville Workhouse who were buried in unmarked pauper graves at Rosemary Green. Information on the more than 4,000 burials was published in 2015 and is available on this website. In the two days after its release more than 3,000 people down loaded the data. […]

The last piece of the jigsaw

Solving the mystery of the forgotten paupers of 100 Fishponds Road

By Roger Ball

Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them Introduction One evening in 2010 some members of Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) were poring over some old maps of Eastville and discovered a forgotten burial ground at Rosemary Green, just round the corner from where they lived. Further investigation showed that the site was in fact the burial ground for Eastville Workhouse at 100 Fishponds Road, an enormous institution that had opened in 1847 and whose buildings were demolished […]

Pauper Graves Memorial Unveiling

1.00pm, Wednesday May 8th, Avonview Cemetery, Beaufort Road, St. George, Bristol, BS5 8EN

In 2012 Bristol Radical History Group launched a project to research into the thousands of unmarked graves of paupers from the Eastville workhouse (at 100 Fishponds Road) who were buried in nearby Rosemary Green. In 2014 the Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group (EWMG) was formed to commemorate and memorialise the 4,084 people who lived and died in Eastville workhouse and were interred at the site between 1851 and 1895, along with another 118 inmates' bodies which were sold to medical schools. In […]