Picture of St George’s Field on the Leeds University campus.
This picture is a view of St George’s Field on the campus of Leeds University. This nicely grassed area was until 1969 the Woodhouse Cemetery and was formerly the Leeds General Cemetery.
Opened in 1835 the cemetery was until 1969 pretty crowded with stone monuments, headstones and memorials since a total of 93,569 interments took place in it.
When the former cemetery was landscaped virtually all the monuments were removed and now there are only a few remaining, these being scattered around the area. The former Cemetery Chapel designed by John Clark in the style of a Greek ionic temple. Both the former chapel and a few of the monuments are now listed as Grade II. I believe the chapel was never actually used as such, Leeds at the time had many non-conformists and there were differences of opinion!
Despite now being surrounded by the Leeds University campus this former cemetery is freely accessed and some of the memorials are perhaps of interest to anyone with a sense of curiosity about our social history. A memorial to look out for is the Leeds firemans memorial.
Leedsdailyphoto.com 