View of the Cemetery before clearance. Source: SGCT
When the Cemetery opened in 1836 the Directors of the Sheffield General Cemetery Company may not have been prepared for the amount of trouble they would have to deal with over the following years. For it was not only a place for people to bury their beloved dead but it was also a public space, initially offering open access to anyone who cared to enter. That would soon change with the introduction of restrictions on entry and notices prohibiting dogs, the plucking of flowers and other forms of anti-social behaviour. The Sexton himself was sworn in as a Parish Constable and a man with a stout black staff was appointed to help him keep the peace on Sunday afternoons. It wasn’t quite the peaceful scene painted in the publicity material.
Add to that the problems of leaky roofs, a damp chapel, recalcitrant contractors and an economic depression, there must have seemed no end to the problems in the early years. And while the difficulties and threats to the Cemetery might have varied over time, from vandalism and neglect to final closure, court cases to libel, botched funerals and embezzlement, for the Directors of the Cemetery Company some sort of trouble was always on the agenda.
