Quaker Burial Ground
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Quaker Burial Ground

Also known as Gildencroft Quaker Cemetery

Norwich, City of Norwich, Norfolk, England

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  • Get directions Chatham Street
    Norwich, City of Norwich, Norfolk England
    Coordinates: 52.63611, 1.29148
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History: There were no public cemeteries those who were not baptised in the established Church had to make their own arrangements, so in March 1670 the Norwich congregation of the Society of Friends (Quakers) bought an acre of land in the south-west quarter of the Gildencroft for use as a burial ground. Bring the coffins into the cemetery was a problem. The coffins had to be carried on the shoulders of bearers along the very narrow Gildencroft Lane (now known as Quakers Lane) from St Martin's Lane or via the even narrower Jenkins Lane from St Martin's at Oak Street. To alleviate this problem the Quakers paid an annual rent on a strip of land about 80 yards long between St Martin's Lane and the Gildencroft burial ground and just wide enough for a horse-drawn wagon bearing a coffin. A crescent was created outside the entrance to the burial ground to allow the wagon to be turned round. In 1856 the Quakers bought premises in Pitt Street to give them an alternative entrance should their right to use of the carriageway ever be lost. By 1906 access was no longer a problem and the Pitt Street house was sold.

Gildencroft Quaker Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Chatham Street, Norwich, Norfolk where many of the city's quakers were buried. Many members of the Gurney family who had a major influence on the development of Norwich - are buried at the far eastern end of the cemetery. Interments in the Gildencroft plot ceased in 1854 when a new Burial Act forbad burials in churchyards and cemeteries within the City walls.






History: There were no public cemeteries those who were not baptised in the established Church had to make their own arrangements, so in March 1670 the Norwich congregation of the Society of Friends (Quakers) bought an acre of land in the south-west quarter of the Gildencroft for use as a burial ground. Bring the coffins into the cemetery was a problem. The coffins had to be carried on the shoulders of bearers along the very narrow Gildencroft Lane (now known as Quakers Lane) from St Martin's Lane or via the even narrower Jenkins Lane from St Martin's at Oak Street. To alleviate this problem the Quakers paid an annual rent on a strip of land about 80 yards long between St Martin's Lane and the Gildencroft burial ground and just wide enough for a horse-drawn wagon bearing a coffin. A crescent was created outside the entrance to the burial ground to allow the wagon to be turned round. In 1856 the Quakers bought premises in Pitt Street to give them an alternative entrance should their right to use of the carriageway ever be lost. By 1906 access was no longer a problem and the Pitt Street house was sold.

Gildencroft Quaker Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Chatham Street, Norwich, Norfolk where many of the city's quakers were buried. Many members of the Gurney family who had a major influence on the development of Norwich - are buried at the far eastern end of the cemetery. Interments in the Gildencroft plot ceased in 1854 when a new Burial Act forbad burials in churchyards and cemeteries within the City walls.





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  • Added: 10 Aug 2009
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2317991