Spratton Pocket Park
(Brixworth Road Cemetery)
In 1903 Spratton Parish Council adopted the Burial Acts of 1852 and 1885. In the same year, the Local Government Board resolved to close the Churchyard despite there being no alternative burial ground. A new site was found in 1904 but rejected by the Local Government Board. Later that year two other sites were brought forward with “Yew Tree Hill” (location not certain, but probably the south end of Yew Tree Lane as this is where the vicar owned land), which belonged to Rev. Roberts, being outvoted by 5-4 in favour of the Brixworth Road site. It is understood that the Brixworth Road cemetery was acquired from Lord Erskine for £50 (see below for history of ownership). The lychgate was built by W W Webster in 1905 at a cost of £110. The acquisition and establishment of the cemetery required a loan of £250, from the Trustees of the Hand and Heart Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
A record of 75 gravestones is printed in the Northamptonshire Family History Society ‘Memorial Inscriptions’, first published in 2002. The earliest burial was on May 6 1905 and generally this churchyard was closed early in the 1950s, although remained open for members of the same family as an earlier burial up to 1989.
There are many old and a few current Spratton family names such as Copson, Leeson, Manning, Martin, Hayter, Balderson, Richardson, Blundell, Holt, Featherston, Gilby.
There are a few burials of very young children, Peter Churchill who died at the age of 5 months in 1930, Franklin Ernest Adams at the age of 3 years in 1945, Nellie Green aged 5 years and her sister Cissie aged 17, daughters of Albert Thomas and Emma Green. And there are some who fell in the World Wars, Walter Hayter at the age of 21 in 1915 and Arthur Walter Page at the age of 20 the same year.
There were very few burials after 1950 as the site capacity was fully used. A new cemetery was opened called “East View” that is currently in use. As time passed fewer families visited or maintained the graves so in 2004 the Parish Council decided to use the cemetery to grow wild flowers. These attract insects for birds to feed on and provide cover for small mammals.
Image Reference: 3056
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