Ayresome Cemetery
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Ayresome Cemetery

Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough Unitary Authority, North Yorkshire, England

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  • Get directions Ayresome Gardens, Linthorpe Road
    Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough Unitary Authority, North Yorkshire England
    Coordinates: 54.56643, -1.24113
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(Not to be confused with LINTHORPE CEMETERY, which is less than a mile away and still in use.)

Founded in 1854 to cope with the sudden expansion of the town, Ayresome Cemetery was Middlesbrough's first purpose-built graveyard and one of its biggest. The last burial was of 84-year-old Florence Gjers in 1950.
More than a century of history, including the yard's two neo-classical-style chapels and all its paths, was simply swept aside when Ayresome Cemetery was decommissioned in 1962.
Many of the headstones were propped up against the walls for a few years as officials talked about preserving them. Then starting in 1978, they were taken away and smashed up. The site was cleared of the last remaining headstones in the early 1980s.

Teesside Archives and The Cleveland Family History Society have burial records.

Please note – NO HEADSTONES REMAIN.
Occasionally improvised commemorative markers have appeared on the site and soon disappeared.

The site is now a park, Ayresome Gardens.
Dozens of cholera victims lie just feet below a basketball court, and a car park beside a neighbouring building covers the graves of 14 children.

Among over 11,000 bodies buried under the park are:
• Edward Saggerson, Chief Constable of Middlesbrough Police for 23 years, who went "insane" and died in North Yorkshire Lunatic Asylum, York.
• Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, politician and founder of the Evening Gazette newspaper, helped introduce free education for everyone under the age of 13.
• The children of Middlesbrough's founding fathers, Henry Bolckow and John Vaughn.
• Members of the Collingwood family – well-known Middlesbrough jewellers.
• John Gjers, a Swedish-born iron-maker who settled in Middlesbrough and pioneered blast furnace design.



















(Not to be confused with LINTHORPE CEMETERY, which is less than a mile away and still in use.)

Founded in 1854 to cope with the sudden expansion of the town, Ayresome Cemetery was Middlesbrough's first purpose-built graveyard and one of its biggest. The last burial was of 84-year-old Florence Gjers in 1950.
More than a century of history, including the yard's two neo-classical-style chapels and all its paths, was simply swept aside when Ayresome Cemetery was decommissioned in 1962.
Many of the headstones were propped up against the walls for a few years as officials talked about preserving them. Then starting in 1978, they were taken away and smashed up. The site was cleared of the last remaining headstones in the early 1980s.

Teesside Archives and The Cleveland Family History Society have burial records.

Please note – NO HEADSTONES REMAIN.
Occasionally improvised commemorative markers have appeared on the site and soon disappeared.

The site is now a park, Ayresome Gardens.
Dozens of cholera victims lie just feet below a basketball court, and a car park beside a neighbouring building covers the graves of 14 children.

Among over 11,000 bodies buried under the park are:
• Edward Saggerson, Chief Constable of Middlesbrough Police for 23 years, who went "insane" and died in North Yorkshire Lunatic Asylum, York.
• Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, politician and founder of the Evening Gazette newspaper, helped introduce free education for everyone under the age of 13.
• The children of Middlesbrough's founding fathers, Henry Bolckow and John Vaughn.
• Members of the Collingwood family – well-known Middlesbrough jewellers.
• John Gjers, a Swedish-born iron-maker who settled in Middlesbrough and pioneered blast furnace design.



















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  • Added: 3 Jul 2015
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2583758