Undercliffe Cemetery

Undercliffe Cemetery is located between Otley Road and Undercliffe Lane in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The cemetery stands atop a hillside overlooking the city and contains some very impressive Victorian funerary monuments in a variety of styles. It is a notable example of a Victorian cemetery where a number of rich and prominent local residents have been buried, notably mill owners and former mayors. Undercliffe Cemetery is grade II* listed by English Heritage in their Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.

History

In the early 1800s Bradford's textile industry underwent rapid growth and with it Bradford's population, consequently there was pressure on housing then on burial ground space and this eventually became a health hazard. As a result many of the existing cemeteries were closed by an Order in Council. Partly in response to this situation the 'Bradford Cemetery Company' was set up and provisionally registered in 1849. Membership of the company included local notables Henry Brown, Robert Milligan, William Rand, Edward Ripley and Titus Salt. The land used for the cemetery had previously been agricultural land with a farmhouse on part of the Undercliffe Estate of the Hustler family. The plot was purchased in 1851 by John Horsfall with £3,400 of monies from the Bradford Cemetery Company and the Bradford Cemetery Company properly founded in 1852. The cemetery was designed and laid out over the years 1851–1854 by park and cemetery designer William Gay (1814–1893) and architect John Dale for the sum of £12,000 for landscaping, planting and building involving the building in 1854 of two chapels on the main promenade.