Catacombs and Lower Cemetery

There had been a cemetery at All Hallows (Friernhay), Bartholomew Street for 200 years, before a scheme was put forward to open the southern slope of the Longbrook Valley as an extension and to create the catacombs for the wealthy of Exeter. The growth of the city had put a strain on the existing burial grounds, and the cholera epidemic of 1832 had shown a need for new facilities, outside the city wall.

The site chosen for the new cemetery had formerly been three fields that were used for grazing. At the bottom, the Longbook was nothing more than an open drain. James Cossins wrote of the ground:

"Before the Lower Cemetery was converted to its present use, it was three fields kept for grazing. At the bottom there was a wide open drain ; on the other side a succession of pigs' habitations, almost every inhabitant of Exe lane being the owner of one or two, and there being no sanitary laws the odour at times were far from agreeable."

The cemetery and catacombs were designed by Thomas Whitaker for the Improvement Commission at an estimated cost of £2,300. They were built by Henry Hooper between 1835 to 1837, at an eventual cost of £6,000. The building works suffered many problems, including failing foundations leaving the Improvement Commission and Whitaker often in dispute. The original capacity of 1,400 interments was more than doubled when the number of catacombs was increased from 8 to 20. Within the cemetery, a dividing wall, which survives, was built between the Anglican and Nonconformist burials, at the instigation of the Bishop of Exeter. Bishop Phillpots consecrated the Anglican cemetery 200 years from the day when Bishop Hall had opened the St Bartholomew's Cemetery. Phillpots refused to have anything to do with the Nonconformist side. Again, James Cossins wrote in 1870:

"The Lower Cemetery was consecrated by Bishop Phillpotts, August 24th, 1837, from which time to the opening of the New Cemetery in May, 1866, just 18,000 bodies were interred."

It was the first cemetery in Britain to be funded by public, rather than private funds and was opened to much public fanfare, on the 200th anniversary of the consecration of the All Hallows Cemetery above.   

Tucked under the city wall, the catacombs were built to accommodate coffins in individual vaults on each side of a long, central passage. Although coffins were lowered from above to their resting place, a fine Egyptian facade was built along the front. It was a commercial disaster for between 1837 and 1883, only 11 interments were made. The City took over the venture and converted part of the unused vaults into a temporary mortuary.

The cemetery had 17,552 interments before it was closed in 1949. Samuel Wesley, organist and composer was buried there in 1877 and John Gendall, Exeter artist in 1865. The catacombs can be visited with a City Redcoat guide. See Exeter's Cemeteries