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In 2001 the Dover Society became involved with the maintenance of the cemetery and has gradually taken over the whole area under the control and direction of White Cliffs Countryside Project.
The work of maintenance involved clearing excess trees and undergrowth, a task that took place over several years, but has left the cemetery with tree cover typical of a park. Our aim is to manage the area as a hay meadow cutting the grass in the Autumn and raking into tidy piles and in this way to best combine the cemetery's roles as a nature reserve, accessible to family historians and a pleasant walk for all.
The Society's working party meets at the Cemetery on one Thursday and one Saturday per month, starting at 9.00am and finishing around 12.30pm. We welcome anyone to come and join us and those interested please call Jeremy Cope on 01304 211348. Provisional dates for 2009 are as follows:-
Volunteers Are Always Welcome!
Registered Charity No. 299954
Registered with the Civic Trust
founded in 1988
Cowgate Cemetery Project
The cemetery is situated beneath the Western Heights with its entrance at the top of Cowgate Hill and has an area of just over two acres. Opened by St Mary's Parish Church with the first interment in 1837 it was the successor to the old churchyard. The cemetery was closed to general use in the 1870's with the opening of the Copt Hill cemeteries but continued to be used where plots had already been purchased or there were vacancies in family plots. The final burial took place in 2006, and was that of William Ebenezer Petchey aged 105, a member of the family who were for a long period sextons at Cowgate.
In the 1960's Dover District Council, the responsible authority, decided to plant the area with a variety of trees and shrubs and thence followed a period of benign neglect. In 1989 responsibility was passed to White Cliffs Countryside Project who managed the cemetery both as a closed cemetery and a nature reserve.
Volunteers from the Society hard at work
Thursday
2009
Saturday
2009
8th January
5th February
5th March
2nd April
7th May
4th June
2nd July
6th August
3rd September
1st October
5th November
3rd December
17th January
14th February
14th March
11th April
16th May
13th June
11th July
15th August
12th September
10th October
14th November
12th December
Apart from maintenance one of the Society's first tasks was the recording of the vault and tombstone inscriptions. The tombstones cover a wide range of internments in that the cemetery includes the bodies of members of the local garrison, those involved in disasters at sea and travellers to and from the continent as well as Dovorians of all classes. Many of the stones are missing or have deteriorated and it was considered important to record those still legible before information was permanently lost. Lesley Gordon led the team that included Hugh Gordon, Ian Murton and Joe Harman.
The group built on the work of Elizabeth De Bourbel who transcribed over 400 inscriptions in the 1980's, adding details from nearly another 400 stones. This resulted in the Society lodging a large tome with Dover Museum which contains maps of the eight plots and the vaults showing the location and grave number of each recorded gravestone, followed by a section of inscriptions and a final index of names each with its own burial reference number. Another book, comprising just the maps, has been prepared for Dover District Council and provides a more ready method of locating individual graves within each plot. The District Council holds burial records of 7264 interments and a large number are commemorated by gravestones which record multiple burials in family plots. Family historians can research the results through the Kent Family History Society (www.kfhs.org.uk ).
Taking details of the graves is rewarding but hard work
Lesley Gordon
Members of the Dover Society
take a well deserved tea break
The microfiche can be purchased from Kent Family History Society, Mrs Rosemary Bailey, 41 The Street, Kennington, ASHFORD, Kent TN24 9HD. The CD ROM can be obtained from: Mr Derek L. Maytum, Stables Cottage, Worthing, DEREHAM, Norfolk NR20 5HR (derek.maytum@btinternet.com ). Dover Reference Library also holds a microfiche and a hard copy is held in Dover Museum Library (01304 201066).
