Shrewsbury Victorian Cemetery

21/08/2026

Autumn has arrived early in the Cemetery. It's the perfect time of year to visit with the long grass cut, and light evenings (it's open until 8pm). If you haven't been before - approach through the main gates on Longden road (close to the roundabout). Park in the modern bit and walk through into the old Victorian cemetery. It feels like entering the Enchanted Wood with the tall lime trees rustling above.

19/08/2026

The Shrewsbury Shopkeepers: I was enjoying reading the Wellington Journal (19th August 1882) with its punctilious description of every flag displayed en-route to the “Great Floral and Musical Fete”. I was wondering what constituted a “pretty flag” vs a “handsome flag”, a “very fine flag” vs a “capital flag” and what a “trophy of flags” might look like. Poor John Franklin whose effort was merely described as “a flag”!
It occurred to me that these shop keepers of Victorian Shrewsbury are all here in the graveyard – Hammonds the fishmongers, Dr Whitwell, the town surgeon, William Harris Rheese the tobacconist. For a few moments, these names are no longer just names on gravestones. They are the people who lined the streets of Victorian Shrewsbury, hanging their "bannerettes" and "strings of flags”, selling their cheeses, confectionery and ale, and taking part in the life of the town.

17/08/2026

Fritz was a prisoner of war. He died at Berrington Hospital following an accident when his leg was crushed when carrying out work in Criggion Quarry. He was buried on 17th August 1918 in Common grave 129-5-C. As it is a common grave - there is no headstone

17 August 1918 Wellington Journal: The death took place in Berrington Military Hospital on Thursday of a German Prisoner named Fritz Schweitzer (22), from injuries received at Criggion Quarry on Monday. He was helping to push a waggon loaded with stone when he slipped and the wheel of the waggon crushed his leg so severely that he died. An inquest was held by Coroner Clarke at the hospital yesterday. A verdict of accidental death was returned.

13/08/2026

Harry Garnett Hay – Sergeant-at-Mace and Policeman

Harry Garnett Hay was born in Yockleton on 3rd March 1874, the son of Edward and Mary Ann Hay. His father was butler to Colonel William Vesey Brownlow of the 1st Dragoon Guards, so perhaps it was not entirely surprising that Harry would later find himself serving with the same regiment.

By 1891, aged 18, Harry was lodging in Hampton, Shropshire, and working as a railway porter. He subsequently joined the 1st Dragoon Guards, who were based at Colchester. On 20th April 1898 he married Maud Mary Swan in Colchester, and their first son, Harry Gordon, was born in Dublin the following year.

Harry's military career soon took him much further afield. On 8th January 1901 he sailed for South Africa aboard the ship Maplemore to take part in the Boer War. While Harry was away, Maud and their two young sons remained in Colchester, living with Maud's widowed mother and her sisters. Peace was declared in May 1902, and Harry returned to England around 1903.

The family subsequently moved to Shrewsbury, where Harry joined the Shrewsbury Borough Police Force. At the time, the force was based at its purpose-built premises on Swan Hill.

By 1911, Harry and Maud were living at 16 Peace Cottages in Old Coleham with their seven children. Their three-bedroom home must have been a crowded household:
Harry Garnett Hay 37 Police Constable, Yockleton
Maud Mary Hay Wife 35 Colchester, Essex
Harry Gordon Hay Son 12 Ireland, County Dublin
Edward Garnet Hay Son 10 Colchester, Essex
Stanley John Hay Son 7 Shrewsbury,
Cissy Maud Hay Daughter 6 Shrewsbury
Alice Dorothy Hay Daughter 5 Shrewsbury
Ida May Hay Daughter 3 Shrewsbury
Myrtle Ethel Hay Daughter 0 Shrewsbury

Harry became a familiar figure in Edwardian Shrewsbury. His name occasionally appeared in the local newspapers in connection with arrests for drunken and disorderly behaviour, and he was particularly well known as one of the mounted policemen on duty during the annual Shrewsbury Flower Show.

After 25 years of service, Harry retired from the police force in May 1928. He was awarded a pension of £149 12s per year.

Retirement from the police did not mean the end of Harry's public service. In November 1931 he became an "extra Mace Bearer" for the Corporation of Shrewsbury. It was a very different role from that of a policeman: ceremonial rather than operational, with Harry wearing the long robes of office and taking part in Corporation processions. He eventually became Sergeant-at-Mace, a position he held until his retirement in January 1938.

Harry's working life had taken him from railway porter, to soldier in the Boer War, to mounted policeman in the streets of Shrewsbury, and finally to a ceremonial role at the heart of the town's Corporation. He died on 5th August 1939 aged 65 and is buried with Maud in area 12.

31/07/2026

Edwin Murrell - The Quiet Rosarian

Edwin Murrell was born at St Georges, Glamorgan on 30th June 1847 , the youngest child of John and Frances Murrell. His father, originally from Suffolk, worked as a gardener on the estate at Old Coedriglan, a large house near St Georges, Glamorgan whose historic gardens still survive today. Being the youngest of nine children meant Edwin entered a busy household. His older siblings were F***y (born 1827), John (1828), William (1831), Arthur (1833–1908), Emma (1836), Alfred (1838), Lucy (1842) and Henry (1844).

The 1851 census records the family living at Dusty Forge, St Georges. John was still working as a gardener and Edwin, then only three years old, was living with his parents and several of his older brothers and sisters. Life changed significantly eight years later when his mother Frances died in 1859. By the 1861 census the thirteen-year-old Edwin was living with his widowed father at 9 Park Street, Newcastle Lower, Glamorgan.

Gardening would shape not only his father's life but ultimately Edwin's own career. In 1868 Edwin married Emma Maria Faulkner. By 1870 the couple had settled in Eaton, near Norwich, where Edwin found employment with John Edward Ewing at Ewing's Royal Norfolk Nurseries. The nursery supplied an astonishing variety of products, from forest and fruit trees to flowering shrubs, garden and agricultural seeds, Dutch bulbs, Russian mats and even mushroom spawn. It was an ideal place for an ambitious young nurseryman to broaden his experience. The 1871 census shows Edwin and Emma living at Eaton Hill Rose Cottage with their infant son, Edwin Faulkner Murrell.

By 1881 the family had moved again, this time to Chestnut Cottage at Breinton, near Hereford. Edwin had become nursery foreman for Cranston's Nursery and Seed Company at King's Acre - specialists in growing and breeding roses. They also sold "ornamental hedges" and "handsome specimen conifer trees", and were able to supply enough fruit trees to stock entire "fruit tree gardens and orchard plantations"

Edwin and Emma had 5 son’s in total
• Edwin Foley Murrell 1870–1949
• Owen Charles Murrell 1873–1949 (father of Hilda Murrell)
• Francis Shirley Murrell 1874–1960
• Stanley Ernest Murrell 1876–1877
• Percy Bernard John Murrell 1884–1942

The decisive turning point in Edwin's life came in November 1884 when an announcement appeared in the local Shropshire newspapers reporting that Messrs. Oldroyd & Co. had let the Portland Nursery and disposed of their business to "Mr. Edwin Murrell, foreman with Messrs. Cranston and Co." After years of working for other nurserymen, Edwin had become the proprietor of his own nursery business.

The move brought the family to Shrewsbury, where Edwin took over both Oldroyd's seed shop in the High Street and the Portland Nursery. The family home stood amongst the greenhouses beside the nursery on Belvidere Road. The 1891 census records Edwin and Emma at Portland Nurseries with three of their sons—Owen, Francis and Bernard Percy —as well as a domestic servant, Maria Edge. By this stage the nursery was well established, and Edwin had become a respected figure in Shropshire horticulture.

Edwin died suddenly on 17 January 1908 while eating breakfast at his home at Portland Nurseries. He had been in poor health for some time.

Although newspaper reports described him as a man of a retiring disposition who took little part in public affairs, his reputation within his profession was considerable. After his death one newspaper noted that he was "one of the largest growers of roses in the United Kingdom." It was an impressive achievement for someone who had begun life as the youngest son of a gardener in a busy Welsh household.

29/07/2026

Charles Reginald Blakiston - accidentally shot

Charles was born in Hastings, the son of artist Douglas Yeoman Blakiston (1832-1914) and Sophia Matilda Blakiston nee Dent. His father subsequently became a clergyman and the family moved to the vicarage of St Swithun's Church, East Grinstead. Charles was the second of six children.

Charles was the assistant house surgeon at the Royal Salop Infirmary and was the assistant to Mr J F Harries. The pair had gone rabbit shooting on 13th October in Redhill near Hook-a-gate when Charles was accidentally shot in the back by Mr Harries who's gun exploded. He died at the Infirmary a week later on 21st Oct 1887 aged 24.

The family were remarkably unfortunate - all of Charles's siblings also died prematurely:
1. Charles's older brother Herbert Edward Douglas Blakiston became Vice-President of the University of Oxford and President of Trinity College for 31 years. Herbert died on 28 July 1942, he was struck by a motorist while walking in Boars Hill near Oxford; he died the next day in the Radcliffe Infirmary without regaining consciousness.
2. His brother John was a telegraph clerk. He was one of seven killed while defending Mazowe, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) on 18 June 1896 during the Second Matabele War.
3. William, the youngest brother, was 19 when he accidentally fell under a train at Charing Cross Station on the night of 1 October 1889; he died in hospital some days later.
4. His 2 sisters also died prematurely: Emily on 28 Aug 1914 in Camberwell, Southwark and Mabel on 26 Feb 1916 in Fulham of influenza.

His father's vicarage St Swithun's suffered an enormous fire in February 1908 and burnt down leaving the his father and mother without possessions and living in ‘an atmosphere of impoverished respectability’.

The newspaper articles published at the time of his death show how difficult it was to get to hospital before the days of ambulances, and also how inadequate Shrewsbury's inquest arrangements were with bodies, officials and the inquest jury all assembling at the local hotel.

26/07/2026

If you would like to read more potted histories of the people who lived and worked in old Shrewsbury - take a look at Belle Vue cemetery and the people buried there. This site is currently fenced off and undergoing redevelopment https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574872929870

I am writing a history of the Belle Vue Cemetery. It’s a beautiful green space in this part of Belle Vue, which is in danger of disappearing. I want to capture as much information as I can before it disappears under development

15/07/2026

The Burr Family – Part 3: If you had walked across Kingsland Bank in Victorian Shrewsbury, you would have seen and smelt smoke rising from the Burr family's lead works.

George Burr was born in 1823, the son of Thomas and Sarah Burr. His father started a plumbing business at the foot of Wyle Cop, but it didn't stay as a plumbing business for long. As demand grew, the family expanded into manufacturing, moving across the River Severn to Kingsland Bank where they made lead sheets, lead pipes and lead shot. At its peak the works employed around 35 men and became one of Shrewsbury's well-known manufacturing businesses. When Thomas Burr retired, the business passed to his sons William, Joseph and George. After the deaths of his brothers, George continued managing the business himself with the help of his own children.

In the summer of 1855 George married Sarah Anna Clarke. Sarah remained very close to her sister Eliza and her family in Wales, so each summer the Burr family packed their trunks and headed for the seaside. They often spent the entire summer months in either Llandudno or Aberystwyth.

George and Sarah had seven children: George William Clarke Burr, Florence Eliza Burr, Edith Laura Burr, Charles Percy Burr, Frederick John Burr, Sarah Adeline Burr and Constance Gertrude Burr. The family first lived at Woodfield House in Porthill before moving, around 1868, to Oaklands on Sutton Road. Census returns show they employed two or three live-in servants. The Burrs were a close family, with several of the children remaining at home well into adulthood before helping to run the family firm. George also found time for public service, becoming a town councillor.

Running a lead works was not without its challenges. In 1883 George found himself in court after complaints were made about black smoke coming from the factory chimneys. Fortunately for him, there was no shortage of supporters. Residents living nearby told the court the smoke caused little inconvenience and helped the roses grow, while masters from Shrewsbury School also spoke in the company's favour. Evidence showed the Burrs had installed the latest equipment to reduce emissions and even bought coal that produced less smoke.

Unfortunately, bigger problems were on the horizon. The Kingsland site had been perfect when goods travelled by river, but the arrival of better roads and the railways made it much less practical. At the same time the lead mines around Snailbeach and Minsterley closed, making it increasingly difficult to obtain raw materials. With supplies drying up and transport becoming more expensive, George reluctantly closed the works in September 1893. He lived to the remarkable age of ninety-one, dying in September 1914. During his lifetime he saw his father's modest plumbing business grow into one of Shrewsbury's large manufacturing concerns and guided it through its most prosperous years before finally accepting that changing times had made its continuation impossible.

15/07/2026

As England take to the field today, it is worth remembering William John Oakley (1873–1934), one of the outstanding amateur footballers of the Victorian era and one of Shropshire's greatest sporting sons. The son of brewer William Oakley, he grew up on Castle Street in Shrewsbury before attending Shrewsbury School, where he captained the First XI, was Huntsman of the cross-country team, and established himself as one of the school's finest all-round sportsmen.

Oakley's sporting talents continued to flourish at New College, Oxford. Alongside football, he became a national athletics champion, winning the AAA long jump title in 1894, representing England against the United States, and excelling in hurdles, rowing, lawn tennis and other university sports. His remarkable versatility made him one of the leading amateur athletes of his generation.

As a full-back, Oakley represented Oxford University before joining the legendary amateur clubs Corinthians and Casuals. Between 1895 and 1901 he won 16 England caps, an impressive total at a time when international fixtures were few. Renowned for his pace, fearless tackling and ability to kick accurately with either foot, he was admired as much for his sportsmanship as his footballing ability, epitomising the Corinthian ideals of honour, fair play and playing for the love of the game.

Away from the football field, Oakley devoted his career to education, becoming joint headmaster and later headmaster of Ludgrove School. More than a century later, his achievements remain a reminder of the game's amateur foundations and the important role Shropshire played in the development of English football. His legacy endures as one of England's earliest international stars and one of the county's most accomplished sportsmen.

05/07/2026

John Price Davies Boylin - and the Umbrella hospital:

John (who often went by his initials J P D Boylin) was christened at St Mary's on 2nd August 1846 to parents Edward and Hannah. He apprenticed as a hairdresser. In 1865 he married Margaret Walker and joined her families hairdressing business in Castle Street. He eventually took over "Walkers" and transferred the business to 63 Mardol in 1874. His adverts stated

J. BOYLIN, (Late Walker), MARDOL, SHREWSBURY, UMBRELLA AND SUN SHADE HOSPITAL. UMBRELLAS Repaired and Re-covered with Silk, feuilla, Alpaca, and Gingham, on the shortest notice. Carriage Umbrellas made to Order.

Umbrellas and sunshades were originally seen as ladies accessories (and in the early days it was considered very humorous to see a man carrying one!).

John and his wife Margaret had twelve children: Minnie Jane Boylin (1865–), Hannah Boylin (1866–1870), Margaret Boylin (1869–1870), William E. Boylin (1870–), John Charles Boylin (1872–1940), George Henry Boylin (1874–), Herbert Walker Boylin (1877–1923), Frank Robert Boylin (1879–1916), Alice Boylin (1882–), Edith E. Boylan (1884–), Lizzie Edith Boylin (1885–), and Thomas Bernard Boylin (1885–1947).

Many of his sons also became hairdressers, and the Boylin's employed a few apprentices. He also offered a service where your hair could be brushed by machinery - this was a new fangled idea for the gentleman, where a circular brush (powered with a fly wheel) was placed all over the head "thoroughly cleansing the scalp, and imparting an agreeable feeling."

63 Mardol was advertised in the Wellington Journal on 28th June 1902:
Valuable FREEHOLD DWELLING-HOUSE, with SHOP, being No. 63, Mardol, Shrewsbury, the occupation Mr. John Davies Boylin. The Premises contain Shop. Plateglass Front, Hair-Cutting room, Kitchen, Back Kitchen, four Bedrooms, w.c., and Two Cellars.

John died on 20th Oct 1910 and his buried with his wife in plot 199 - 14 - D