HISTORIC ELTHAM ELTHAM CEMETERY


John Kennett considers Eltham’s funeral arrangements.


For hundreds of years there was only one church in Eltham, that of St John’s in the high street, and as was the custom on death, local inhabitants were buried in the church yard. Many villagers, no matter what their religious beliefs, if any, would have been buried there as no other facility was available. When the population grew, there was more pressure on burial space and extra land was bought. By the late 1920s space was at a premium and Woolwich Borough Council, as the cemetery authority, was mindful of its obligations and sought a new burial site.


As the Crown was the largest landowner their assistance was sought in fi nding a suitable location and four sites were considered. The agreed spot was on the edge of the borough where some 27 acres of farm and woodland, with clay undersoil, were located alongside the newly constructed Rochester Way at Falconwood in an area that the Crown would be releasing for housing. A new estate was to be built by contractors J Webb to be marketed as ‘Eltham Heights’.


North from Bexley Road ran the ancient footway known as Crown Woods Lane


Woods Way while another section ran diagonally across the new cemetery site and on to Oxleas Woods fi nally emerging on Shooters Hill, as it does today.


which would become a local landmark. A site near the chapel was reserved for a crematorium and a garden of rest.


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The main entrance, chapel and shelters in 1935 (photo courtesy Greenwich Heritage Centre) The original Crown Woods Lane


which was bounded by mature oak trees and hedgerows and was a popular spot for ramblers. Part of this footpath was to be widened into the emerging Crown


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In January 1933 the Town Clerk, Arthur Bryceson, was reporting to the Baths, Markets and Cemeteries Committee that the Commissioners for Crown Lands had agreed to sell the land as a burial ground for £7,000 with compensation being paid to the farm tenant. There was one problem however and that was the public right of way across the land in the form of Crown Woods Lane. The solution was to divert the lane around the site and into Rochester Way. The whole purchase hinged on the issue by the Quarter Sessions of a closure notice for the footpath. This was agreed but instead of a proposed 14ft metalled farm road a footpath and a wide grass verge were substituted. The cemetery was to be


bounded by a brick wall on three sides with a buff er of mature trees screening the site from Colepits Wood Road. Two shelters, lawns and fl ower beds would be provided leading to the chapel


Using a golden key, on a rather dank day, the Mayor of Woolwich Councillor AH Gilder formally opened the cemetery, which had cost £22,000, on 13 April 1935. The western section was dedicated for the Church of England by the Bishop of Woolwich, the Right Rev AL Preston, for the Roman Catholics by Fr Leo Montgomery, and the general section by the Rev E Ralph Bates. A commemorative plaque was placed within the chapel. In January 1940 a conference was held at Woolwich Town Hall with representatives from Woolwich, Bexley,


Chislehurst/ Sidcup and Erith councils considering


The western section in 1935; Crown Woods Lane trees the left, chapel to the right (photo courtesy Greenwic Heritage Centre)


We are proud of Eltham


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