Leeds General Cemetery Co. Ltd. (1833-1967)

The Leeds General Cemetery Company was established in 1833, with the aim to provide and maintain a public burial ground in Leeds. Lack of adequate provision for burials was an issue for Leeds after the cholera outbreak in 1832.

A letter was published in the Leeds Mercury calling for the creation of a public cemetery for all religious denominations in the city; a number of the Leeds elite then formed a committee to pursue this aim. The first meeting of the committee was held on 24th June 1833, where a sub-committee was created to investigate options for a cemetery site. The land chosen was St George's Fields near Woodhouse Moor, close to the road to Headingley and Otley. Due to its location, the cemetery was also known as Woodhouse Cemetery.　

The committee was able to raise the funds for the build and launched a public competition for the design of the cemetery. This was eventually won by the architect John Clark. The first stone of the boundary wall was laid in March 1834 and the whole build completed by 1835 for a sum of £11,000. The Cemetery opened the same year, with the first burial on 23rd July. The company was originally constituted by a trust deed on 1st July 1835, later registering as a joint stock company in December 1844.　

The main operational work of the cemetery was overseen by the Registrar who was initially in charge of both the burial ceremonies, the burial registration and the daily management of the cemetery. This role was later split between a Registrar (or Manager) and a Chaplain, with variations on this title.　

In the 1930s it was becoming clear that the cemetery site was running out of space and that the enterprise would cease to be viable. By the end of the Second World War, the cemetery had become rather overgrown and neglected. As early as 1922 the University of Leeds had considered acquisition of the cemetery; by that time its buildings surrounded the site. It wasn't until 1956 and after some controversy that the University eventually acquired the company by buying up all the shares, then converting it to a private limited company.

The University subsequently obtained powers under the provisions of the University of Leeds Act (1965) to landscape the site. This was private legislation which empowered the University to create a public open space by the removal of headstones and other memorials; and prevented further interments after October 1965. In accordance with the 1965 Act, the University contacted all known owners of burial plots prior to landscaping and supplied documents enabling them to request compensation for the loss of their burial rights and plot. Before the landscaping began, a complete photographic record of the gravestone inscriptions was made by the University Bursar, Edmund Williams, and copies of photographs could be sent to plot owners if requested.

The Company went into voluntary liquidation in October 1967. From March-November 1968, contractors removed headstones and memorials (some were collected by the City Museum, some retained and others covered over). The area was then grassed-over and landscaped. The existing Chapel was designated of special architectural and historical interest in 1963 and remained in place. The Leeds General Cemetery contains the graves of 105 casualties of both the First and Second World Wars; a memorial to these individuals is situated at Lawnswood Cemetery.

Burials eventually ceased in October 1969, but the site continued to be used for the scattering of cremations. Since the opening of the cemetery in 1835 a total of over 95,000 interments had taken place. In the autumn of 1969 the area was re-opened to the public under the name of St George's Fields, the original name of the site before it became a cemetery.