? about the size of graves in Nellfield

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 5:17 pm

I found some pictures of Nellfield Cemetery on the web and the grave sites which are bound by stone curbs appear to be very small for number of people buried in them. Does this mean that the bodies were cremated? Or are the graves stacked? Or what?

Thanks,
Carol

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 5:23 pm

Hi Carole

In Scotland because of the varying depths of soil some graves could contain several layers of coffin. When a lair was purchased several members of the family would be interred together.

Single plots could also be purchased by size.

Cremation was not made legal in Scotland until 1903.

Russell

Archiver · Post by **Archiver** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:25 pm

Also, sometimes older coffins were removed from graves and 'destroyed', thus opening up more space in the lair.

With Nellfield though, there was the scandal in the late 1890s whereby the superintendent at the time re-sold coffins in order to make a bit of cash on the side. He removed the original bodies from their coffins, and sold the coffins as new...

Post by **AndrewP** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:22 pm

Some lair books give information about the depth of the burial. One lair with a family group (names omitted) from my tree reads as follows.

7' - child, age 6 months, buried 16-Apr-1904
7' - child, age 15 weeks, buried 28-Jun-1905
6' - father of children, age 39, buried 25-Sep-1906
5' - mother of children, age 68, buried 01-Mar-1941
-- - brother of children, age 63, buried 31-Dec-1971

It looks like two small child sized coffins fitted in one layer, and each level was allocated a foot of depth. The 1971 burial gave no depth.

All the best,

AndrewP