Restored Gatehouse at the Sheffield General Cemetery. Source: Andrew Littlewood.
The Friends of the General Cemetery (FOGC) was established in 1989 out of concern for the state of the Cemetery. Their aim was to protect and ultimately to restore and regenerate the site. In 1992 the Council undertook some maintenance on the site and in the mid-1990s FOGC received several grants and donations for restoration work. Leases were taken on the Nonconformist Chapel and the Gatehouse in order to protect them from inappropriate development. In 1998 a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund was successful and the Gatehouse area was refurbished to provide offices on one side and a rental flat on the other.
In 2005 FOGC became the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust (SGCT) and in 2013 an application to the Architectural Heritage Fund’s ‘Challenge Fund’ for a capital grant to repair and fit out the Nonconformist Chapel was unveiled. The plan was to carry out repairs to the Chapel, reinstate windows, install heating, lighting, disabled access, and toilet and kitchen facilities to bring it back into public use. By September 2015 visitors were able to access the Chapel to see the extensive restoration. Gone were the bricked-up windows and gloomy interior: instead, the delicately latticed original window framework had been exposed and restored to let the light stream into the large and airy building.
However, by 2018 the Cemetery was on Historic England’s ‘Heritage at Risk Register’ due to the significant levels of structural repair required to conserve the complicated tiers of retaining walls that are largely unseen but intrinsic to the Cemetery’s design. Some had not had significant repair work since being built. A bid for funding to conserve and improve the Cemetery with plans including work on walls, Catacombs, monuments, signage, management of trees, vegetation and lighting and car parking was made and £3 million awarded by the Parks for People programme, a joint initiative between the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund. With £800,000 added by Sheffield City Council, the proposed repair and conservation work including a three-year activity programme was made possible.
The most dramatic change was to the Catacombs where the concrete balustrade and the raised area by the main drive were carefully removed without disturbing any burials and the levels restored to those of the original 1836 design. One section at the west end was left and marked with the date 1937 to recognise that period in the site’s history. The whole structure was stabilised with hidden steel reinforcements. In 2023, after the contractors’ work was complete, Historic England removed the Cemetery from the ‘Heritage at Risk’ Register.
Since its renovation the Chapel has been used for exhibitions, community events, music and drama performances and concerts, private parties, conferences and corporate away days. The Chapel is an important source of revenue for the Trust, particularly since it became a wedding venue and gained a licence to host events throughout the year.
You can read more about the history of Sheffield General Cemetery in the SGCT publications For the Living and the Dead, Sheffield General Cemetery – Then & Now, and Recollections of a Former Occupant.