Jericho, Oxford

Image: © David Hallam-Jones Taken: 29 Jul 2013

This unmade road, off Walton Street, leads to the main entrance of St Sepulchre’s cemetery. By 1843 “every churchyard in the city,” a committee reported, “was full” and although the need for new burial grounds was becoming urgent a battle raged over whether to create a large general cemetery versus a number of smaller 'parish cemeteries'. In 1847 a decision was taken to create three smaller cemeteries for the eleven parishes and a district chapelry that comprised the inner city. Thus St Sepulchre's cemetery was born at the extreme north-west of the St Paul’s ecclesiastical sub-district. This was previously the site of an old farmstead that had been abandoned in the early C19th, belonging to Walton Manor Farm. The cemetery was also used by seven of the city colleges who were no longer allowed to bury their dead in their own chapels. This new burial ground was consecrated 1848 and although it was extended later it was finally closed for new burials in 1945 when it became the responsibility of the City Council.

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