Undercliffe Cemetery: The story of how Bradford volunteers spent 40 years saving 'the Highgate of the north' from decay

Forty years ago, one of the most historically significant cemeteries in Yorkshire was facing an uncertain future and mired in decay.

Undercliffe Cemetery in Bradford - nicknamed 'the Highgate of the north' - is the final resting place of a vast spectrum of the city's past residents, from wool barons with opulent decorative tombs to paupers buried in mass graves.

The Grade II-listed 26-acre site has 125,000 people buried in its confines and it is unique, having been funded privately by wealthy industrialists - including Sir Titus Salt - and later passed into the ownership of a charitable trust. It has never been council-run and contrary to popular belief, it is not 'full' and is still accepting burials today.

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The trust's 40 volunteers have been working since the 1980s to restore the graves to glory and make records more accessible, as well as surveying the ground to create space for new interments - and now their dedication has been rewarded with the announcement that they are to receive a prestigious Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.

The trust's chair Allan Hilary outside the Illingworth tomb, which was disturbed in the 1980s and the granite sphinxes dislodgedThe trust's chair Allan Hilary outside the Illingworth tomb, which was disturbed in the 1980s and the granite sphinxes dislodged
The trust's chair Allan Hilary outside the Illingworth tomb, which was disturbed in the 1980s and the granite sphinxes dislodged

It is a fitting culmination of their successful battle against encroaching nature, rapacious property developers and even tomb robbers, which have together threatened the graveyard's existence, to remain financially viable.

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"We have everything here, from wealth monuments to an 8x4ft plot containing 67 bodies. It's all aspects of life here, dating from the first burial in 1854," said trustee Tim Hardy.

Sir Titus and friends decided to develop the land for burials after the Bradford Cathedral graveyard began to overflow - the smells of decomposition and even protruding bones had become a health hazard. 4,600 bodies from the cathedral were reinterred in a pit at Undercliffe.

The more opulent tombs belong to mill owners who built the cityThe more opulent tombs belong to mill owners who built the city
The more opulent tombs belong to mill owners who built the city
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The youngest burial is a minute-old baby found in the railway tunnel at Bowling in the 19th century, and the oldest a Victorian man who died aged 105. Among the more notable names are a maid of the Bronte sisters, one of Sir Titus Salt's sisters, a Labour MP, a Chief Druid, a soldier killed in battle against the Zulus in South Africa, the driver and conductor of a runaway tram who were killed when it smashed into a pub in Idle in 1925, and the Bankarts, the merchant family who built the Little Germany commercial district. Trustees call it 'a history of Bradford in stone'.

However, Undercliffe's fortunes as a private company declined along with the city's wool industry in the 20th century. Many wealthier residents had moved out of central Bradford, and the failure to build a crematorium meant 'trade' was lost to council-run facilities. Eventually, in 1976 the cemetery went bust. The gatehouse lodge occupied by the registrar was abandoned and vandalised, and many records from the 1840s were damaged in a fire.

The site was sold to a builder who demolished the lodges and chapels and sold the stone, and many of the graves were 'butchered' and monuments removed. Even the Grade-II listed tombs were not safe, with the bronze doors pillaged and an attempt to steal the two granite sphinxes guarding the mill-owning Illingworth family's vault. At this point there was an outcry over the treatment of such an historic asset and a charity was formed to protect it, mainly at the behest of Christine Chapple, a housewife from Gomersal who persuaded Bradford Council to enact a compulsory purchase order on the land in 1985.

There are still around 15 burials a year at Undercliffe, many of people whose ancestors are interred there, and today income is derived from tours and TV filming - the cemetery has appeared in period dramas such as Peaky Blinders and location scouts are drawn to its gothic beauty.

There are pauper graves and mass burial pits as well as opulent tombs and vaultsThere are pauper graves and mass burial pits as well as opulent tombs and vaults
There are pauper graves and mass burial pits as well as opulent tombs and vaults
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"It's an amazing place and it's gone from strength to strength. Social media has been very important for us and it's so photogenic. The university are currently surveying areas of the site where there aren't as many bodies, as there are people whose families are buried here who still want to be. They come from a long line of Bradfordians and some plots have room for more.

"We are currently digitising the receipt books to create a database and we run around 12 tours a year, which bring in £400 per tour. Undercliffe is a deprived area and we want to preserve the cemetery for future generations."