Twerton Cemetery (Bellotts Road Cemetery) is a municipal burial ground that opened in 1882 and closed in 1937. Burials to existing plots still occasionally take place.



Twerton Burial Board purchased the site from the trustees of Bellott's Hospital. Between 1881 and 1882 provision was made for a chapel, a lodge, and the appointment of a caretaker. The Bishop of Bath and Wells consecrated the Anglican area in August 1882. The first burial took place early in September.



The cemetery houses approximately 8400 burials, about 800 of which are marked by a memorial. Many plots are common graves, with burials not only from Twerton parish but from nearby Moorfields/Oldfield Park, South Twerton, Southdown, Whiteway, Englishcombe, Lower Weston, Odd Down (these usually being from Bath Union Workhouse/Frome Road House, later St. Martin's Hospital), and Lyncombe and Widcombe parish. A few burials come from other Bath parishes, with the occasional individual coming from outside Bath. It is not unusual for a family plot to be unmarked.



There is no dedicated war memorial section at Twerton Cemetery. War dead are remembered by Twerton War Memorial, near the parish church, and also on Bath's main memorial at Victoria Park. Eight First World War graves at Twerton Cemetery are under the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They are:



Lance Corporal Reginald Percy Dench

Private Walter Harold Fry (not a CWGC marker)

Lance Corporal George Ham

Private Arthur Henry Lane

Sapper James Albert Edward Osborne

Private Thomas Alfred Parsons

Private Herbert Alfred Webber (CWGC marker on a family box grave)

Private George Williams



Other memorials and cenotaphs on the site name family members who died on active service, those who saw service, and civilians who perished in wartime.



The layout of Twerton Cemetery follows a largely consistent grid system. The entrance gate is between the former lodge (now a private residence) and disused chapel, which stand in the unconsecrated section of the cemetery. The site slopes gently down towards the railway line, with the boundary between the Northern unconsecrated and Southern consecrated sections running horizontally across the cemetery. This path actually forms an avenue of trees either side of row U-2, with row U-1 on the consecrated side. A narrow, vertical path divides both unconsecrated and consecrated sections between letters S and T. This path begins directly in front of the entrance gate, between the chapel and the lodge. The main anomaly in the grid system is row QQ, which follows the boundary wall downhill from Bellotts Road railway bridge.



A large number of infant, stillborn, and child burials took place at Twerton cemetery. Bath Burial Index estimates that up to a quarter of the burials were of children under the age of 11.



Preservation of the memorial stones varies greatly. Some areas of the site are affected by subsidence. A number of the upright headstones have delaminated. Those memorials around the outskirts of the cemetery have growth of ivy and bramble, and those beneath the mature trees are often covered with deep leaf litter during Autumn and Winter. A few plots have large holly bushes growing on them, while others around the edges of the cemetery and along the horizontal, central path are disturbed by the roots of trees.



The site is in the care of Bath and North East Somerset Council's Bereavement Services Department, which arranges semi-regular strimming of the site and a rolling program of safety inspections and tree works. Any monuments found in an unsafe condition are staked and marked for the attention of the plot owner, or made safe by laying the stonework flat. Where possible, inscriptions are left facing upwards.



The Bereavement Services Department, based at Haycombe Cemetery office, can assist in locating a grave. Scanned burial registers are online at Deceased Online (paid). As with most Bath burial grounds, the graves at Bellotts Road Cemetery were mapped by P. J. Bendall and indexed for the comprehensive Bath Burial Index, available from the Council via Bath Record Office. The majority of the surviving monumental inscriptions have been transcribed, and graves with an inscription photographed. These are available online, at no charge, from Bath Record Office's web site.