Overleigh Cemetery

Category : Article

Chester's spooky Victorian cemetery at the south end of the Grosvenor Bridge originally had a lake with islands and two chapels; one for nonconformists and another (on higher ground!) for Anglicans. It is situated in a dark valley and as the evening draws near it can be an very ghostly place. The gates are locked at dusk.

Like many Victorian cemeteries it started off as a private concern. In fact, the money ran out part-way through landscaping and fresh shareholders had to be found in something of a hurry.

A List of Interesting Graves and Monuments
The locations of some of these are shown on the map to the right. Please remember that some of the graves are quite recent and relatives may be visiting, so don't trample over everything else looking for the interesting stuff.


 * William Ayrton - first in the ground and still here


 * William Brown - son of the founder of Brown's department store


 * William Cross - Galvanic therapist. Made his own coffin from matchboxes (it took him ten years) and fitted a light and various galvanic plates to it. Perhaps he believed that this would restore him to life.


 * John Douglas - architect and designer of many characteristic brick buildings around Chester. As mentioned on Wikipedia.


 * Thomas Hughes - storeman, went down on the Lusitania. There is an interesting Lusitania collection at Liverpool Maritime Museum within easy reach of Chester. The Lusitania sailed from New York on 1 May 1915 with 1,962 passengers and crew. On 7 May 1915, at 2.10 pm, she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 off Kinsale, Ireland. She sank in under twenty minutes with the loss of 1,201 lives. Another Thomas Hughes connected with Chester was the author of "Tom Brown's Schooldays", and a third was Hughes, the author, in 1856, of "The Stranger's Handbook to Chester".


 * Mabel Ireland-Blackburn - the "Chewing Gum Girl". Supposedly died from chewing gum but actually died of pertussis(whooping cough).


 * Mary Jonas - Won a free lifetime subscription to Titbits for having given birth to 33 children and "contributing the most people to the British Empire".


 * Edward Langtry - estranged husband of the better-known Lillie (Langtry/Langtree). She did not begin her stage career until several years later, after her husband became bankrupt. Edward was incarcerated at the Chester Asylum shortly before his death, having suffered a brain injury during a sea voyage and become deranged. Lillie did not attend his funeral.


 * Thomas Lockwood - architect much patronised by the Grosvenors. In 1888, he was responsible for one of the best-known groups of vernacular revival buildings in Chester, 1 Bridge Street, on the eastern corner of Eastgate Street and Bridge Street, and in 1892 he designed those on the opposite corner, between Bridge Street and Watergate Street.


 * Robert Newstead - archaeologist, held the post of curator at the Grosvenor Museum from 1886-1913 and then from 1922-47. Later became Professor Emeritus of Entomology at Liverpool University. He was a scholar of considerable distinction in the field of archaeology and was made a freeman of Chester in 1936.


 * Richard Price - the carved headstone of this keen salmon fisherman features Grosvenor Bridge and an empty boat.

Gravestone with Grosvenor Bridge and empty boat Gravestone with Grosvenor Bridge and empty boat


 * Henry Raikes - Chancellor of Chester, has an outrageous tomb (designed by Thomas Mainwaring Penson) which is now mostly overgrown with ivy.

Raikes overgrown tomb Raikes overgrown tomb


 * Harry Riley Horton - goldsmith, has a faded photograph set in sealed frame. This is very rare in the UK but is commonplace in Europe.


 * William Makepeace Thackery - doctor and uncle of the novelist (he is actually buried in the Cathedral, his monument is the big one in the middle).


 * John Trainer - fireman, whose son was washed overboard from the City Berlin on 25 March 1882, aged 23. His grandson died on board the SS Campania on 8 January 1911, also aged 23 and buried at sea.


 * Marjorie Anne Tucker - WRAF motor driver at RAF Sealand during WW1 (the only military grave in the cemetery)


 * Joseph Turner, resident of Chester and architect of the Watergate, the Bridgegate, ‘Pill-Box Terrace’, the fine row of Georgian houses in Nicolas Street and the Bridge of Sighs crossing the canal, formerly linking the infamous Northgate Gaol with the Bluecoat Chapel in Northgate Street.

Military (WRAF) gravestone Military (WRAF) gravestone

Further Information
Chester City Council info page; Chester City Council history page; Military Portion of Blacon Cemetery - this includes a Polish and an RAF section; Virtual Stroll on Overleigh; Another page;