London Road Cemetery

I have grandparents, an uncle and a set of great grandparents all buried in marked graves at London Road but I know there's also another set of great grandparents buried there in an unmarked grave. Does anyone know how I can find out where the plot is?

This should help Guide to Cemetery & Burial Registers, London Road Civic Cemetery (Companion booklet to London Rd Burial Registers, has maps and explanations) (pub.CovFHS)
http://www.covfhs.org/bookshop/miscellaneous.html

My dad who was a Coventry City ambulance man and got killed on duty in 1950 is buried in London Road Cemetery with my grandma as well. Anyway I wanted to find their grave and I contacted the city council a few years ago and I travelled from Buckinghamshire where I live now and met a nice chap from the council who had found my dad's grave and took me to the exact spot. I found the city council very helpful, whether they are the same today though, I don't know. PeterW

I thoroughly recommend the CD containing a list of all burials in the cemetery from 1847 to 1937 shown in "Midland Red's" link above. It's very user friendly and has the added bonus of cross-referencing all the other people buried in the same grave. That feature is very useful when to find children who were born and then died between censuses.

Elsewhere on the forum I referred to the Paybody family who gave the Elms at Allesley to Coventry for use a hospital for crippled children. Last year we decided to find the family grave to send photographs to distant Paybody relatives in Australia. Using the database and grave maps we finally tracked it down to one of three possibilities which were all covered in ivy. Tracing overgrown graves in the Victorian part of the London Road is a challenge.

Good work people Did anyone else notice the 'painting the Forth road bridge' task someone got given re-pointing the wall edging the cemetery along the London Road recently?! Not so exciting work! The old part of London Road is really interesting - hopefully not in too much of a morbid way but there's some fascinating old memorials there. I know I read that part was bombed badly during the war.

I have a serious worry. Last year my cousin and I had a gravestone put in the London Road cemetery for the previously unmarked grave of our grandparents and great grandmother. I learned from the stonemason that he has stored possibly hundreds of stones that were removed for subsequent burials, and where no provision had been made to re-erect them. Nowadays he charges a storage fee which no doubt encourages someone to have the stones put back. He thought other stonemasons had the same problem. Surely this accounts for some of the large gaps in the cemetery, and what a tragedy that perhaps later decendants are unaware of the stones being missing. Is there some group that at least could record the inscriptions of these stones that are in storage?

Please could someone help me interpret a grave location in what I read is a huge cemetery. I have "square 134/138, grave 92". Is there some sort of X/Y co-ordinate system? The date is 1851 so we're talking about the Old Cemetery. Also could someone please tell me whether there is a map somewhere eg at the cemetery, The Herbert ... Thank you for any help. johnmarcham

I hope this is of help

Thank you DBC. That was very quick and this looks just what I need to get started. Square 134/138 presumably means near the border between them. I imagine in 134 but near 138. It is helpful that these two squares are crossed by a path. Now just need to locate grave 92. I suppose that is the number within the square 134. Has anyone any idea how many graves there are likely to be in the typical square? Thanks again.

It looks as though squares 134 and 138 can be regarded as one square,with the grave numbers overlapping these two squares. I think I have found grave 92. Its shown immediately above the small "o" of "No 138" and four rows in from the path. (top right-hand sector of first image) Edit - Here is an enlarged image of the first picture:-

DBC, You're a star!

Just seen this. He's right DBC, a Star indeed. Thank you. Yet another question though. What is the significance of the oblique through many of the graves. Might it indicate whether, or not, there is a monument do you think? Thank you again. johnmarcham

Hello Neils Yard Did you get the location which you asked about for your ancestors?

I'm afraid that I don't know the answer to that question. I obtained all the information from the book mentioned above in Midland Red's post. Those lines could either mean that there are headstones or it could mean that the grave has been reopened for further burials. On that latter subject, I don't know what information you have on that particular grave, regarding who is actually buried there. If you would like to give me the name of the person you are interested in (email me if you want it kept off the forum)and I can look at the burial disk. This will give all the names and burial dates of every one interred in that particular grave. It might show up some extra relations, especially children who were born and then died between census dates. .