OLD DEVONPORT . UK
www.olddevonport.uk
 

BURIAL GROUNDS AND CEMETERIES

MILEHOUSE CEMETERY

After a lengthy dispute and an inquiry by a Government inspector, Mr Holland, the Rector of the Ancient Parish Church of Stoke Damerel, the Reverend W J St Aubyn, was ordered by Her Majesty's Privy Council to close the churchyard as it was considered to be full.  The Vestry launched an appeal but this was dismissed and the burial ground was closed later in 1871. 

The Lord of the Manor was approached for a suitable site for a burial ground and an agreement was reached whereby some Glebe land fronting Saint Michael's Terrace and at Fitzroy Terrace would be exchanged for land owned by the Manor at Milehouse.  The Manor land was assessed to be worth nearly £200 more than the Glebe land but his Lordship said that the Church could have the land, ground for ground.  He also offered a further £900 towards laying out the new ground, although he was not obliged to.  The ground was enclosed by a stone wall on three sides and a hedge on the fourth but when the Rector received the keys to the ground, he refused to accept them saying that the Lord of the Manor had not spent the money he promised.  It was found that, in fact, £864 had been expended and his Lordship was prepared to spend the remaining £36 in any way the Rector wished.   He even offered a further £100 to make the total up to £1,000.

The new burial ground was opened in 1871 and consecrated in October 1876.  It is not yet known how or when it came to be called a "Cemetery".

As more and more burials took place in the Weston Mill Cemetery so the Milehouse Cemetery suffered from neglect.  In 1967 the Cemetery was acquired by Compulsory Purchase order for the Central Electricity Generating Board.  The graves were removed and the remains re-interred at Efford Cemetery.

Records of burials in Milehouse Cemetery, including some photographs of headstones, are held by the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, Clare Place, Coxside, Plymouth.