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Rosary cemetery, Norwich - decaying mushrooms on tree stump

The entrance to the Rosary Cemetery lies on Rosary Road. This was the first ever non-denominational cemetery in the UK, established in 1819 by Thomas Drummond, a nonconformist minister. The land was formerly in use as a market garden, and presents a broad green open space between the housing areas to the south and the playing fields of the Telegraph Lane schools to the north. The cemetery chapel > Link was constructed in 1879 and is believed to be the finest work of architect Edward Boardman.

Tragically, the first interment at the Rosary was Drummond's wife Ann who died in childbirth aged 41. The cemetery has a number of literary links. The novelist Ralph Hale Mottram, for instance, is buried here in the family plot. He was Lord Mayor of Norwich and also the last chairman of the trustees of the cemetery before it was entrusted to Norwich Corporation in 1956. Ada Nemesis Cooper, the adopted daughter of the eye surgeon Emanuel Cooper - he has a fine mausoleum here > Link - married the novelist John Galsworthy (their family life together inspired The Forsyte Saga). A number of Norwich School painters are also buried in the Rosary as are train driver John Prior and fireman James Light, killed in the disastrous 1874 Thorpe rail accident. A great number of interesting gravestones and memorials, such as the cast iron tombchest of Jeremiah Cozens (d 1849) - it has a lion with a ring in his mouth and a flame on top and bears the signature of the Dixon Foundry of Norwich > Link - can be found on the 13 acres (53,000 square metres) of the cemetery. The site > Link came under the control of the Norwich Corporation in 1954 and it is estimated that about 18,500 people have been buried there since 1821. In January 2010 the cemetery was granted Grade II listed status.

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