Cemetery Wildlife – October 2024
The first full month of autumn contained some mild sunny weather, with temperatures reaching the high teens on several days. October…
Notice of 2024 AGM
Friends of Hull General Cemetery are pleased to announce details of our first-ever AGM. All friends, supporters and volunteers are welcome…
Cemetery Wildlife – September 2024
Autumn Fruits Special This month marked the end of summer and the start of autumn. The weather was very mild, dry…
Cemetery Wildlife – August 2024
August has been the driest month of the year so far. Our part of the country had only around 20% of…
Cemetery Wildlife – July 2024
Considering July is in the middle of summer, the weather has not fully reflected that. There have been several cool, dull…
Cemetery Wildlife – June 2024
The month started off cold and wet, and up to the middle of the month the footpaths were still muddy. …
CEMETERY WILDLIFE – MAY 2024
There was a real mixed bag of weather for the cemetery wildlife to contend with in May. And whilst I wouldn’t…
BURIAL RECORDS & PHOTO PROJECT – Update
After numerous grant applications, many unsuccessful, we are delighted to announce that Friends of Hull General Cemetery (FoHGC) now have sufficient…
Cemetery Wildlife – April 2024
It might seem strange to be starting this report with a photo that was so obviously NOT taken in the cemetery. …
Cemetery Wildlife – March 2024
For me, nothing signals the start of spring more than the sound of a Chiffchaff singing, so let’s start this month…
Cemetery Wildlife – February 2024
It might seem odd to start the report for a winter month with a butterfly, but this is indicative of…
Cemetery Wildlife – January 2024
The year started off with a beautifully sunny day and temperatures of just a few degrees. Then there was a…
Cemetery Wildlife – December 2023
The month started off very cold and frosty, and there was even a light dusting of snow one day. The cemetery…
Cemetery Gates Refurbishment
Friday 1 December 2023 saw the official opening of the newly refurbished cemetery gates. The weather was kind to us and…
Cemetery Wildlife – November 2023
November was very wet and windy, with so much rain that the footpaths throughout the cemetery have remained muddy all month. …
Cemetery Wildlife – October 2023
October was a typically autumnal month, with some misty mornings leading to sunny days. It was quite mild at times, but…
Cemetery Wildlife – September 2023
September started off unusually hot. Temperatures reached the high 20s, possibly even 30, in the first week, qualifying as a heatwave. …
The Company, Cholera, Colouring and the Corporation
Most of you will know that the ‘great visitation’ inscribed on the large obelisk in the Cemetery refers to the cholera…
Cemetery Wildlife – August 2023
August was a cool and wet month with lots of rain, some of it very heavy, in the first week.…
Cemetery Wildlife – July 2023
While parts of mainland Europe sweltered under record breaking heat, it has been a rather cool month here, with a higher…
War Graves
The recent unveiling of the headstone commemorating the last war grave headstone removed from the site last year occurred on the…
Eva La Pensee: A personal appreciation
The death of Eva La Pensee in June was a shock although in our hearts we all knew it was coming.…
Cemetery Wildlife – June 2023
June started off dry and warm, with some very hot spells of over 25 C on several days. There was some…
Cemetery Wildlife – May 2023
May got off to a wet start, but there was plenty of warm sunshine throughout the month. I was away on…
Cemetery Wildlife – April 2023
April was generally another cool and wet month, with a higher than average total rainfall meaning the footpaths in the…
Cemetery Wildlife – March 2023
March got off to a very cold and wet start, with several days of sub-zero temperatures and some sleet and snow…
The Beginnings of Western Cemetery
The Beginnings of Western Cemetery Western Cemetery is a large cemetery situated about a mile and half from the city centre…
Cemetery Wildlife – February 2023
The last full month of winter was a very dry one, with hardly any rainfall. It looks set to be one…
Cemetery Wildlife – January 2023
This month has been a typical midwinter one, with a mix of weather including a week of sub-zero starts to the…
Cemetery Wildlife – December 2022
As I was away on holiday for most of the month, December’s column has been written by guest reporter Grace Mount,…
The Larkin Bench
INVITATION – FRIDAY 2ND DECEMBER At 2pm, that day, there is to be the unveiling of the Philip Larkin Bench. This…
The New Information Board
There is to be an information board in the Cemetery. The image above is hopefully how it will look. The board…
Cemetery Wildlife – November 2022
What a wet month this has been! It was still quite mild at the start, but it got colder towards the…
Anniversary December 1846
This month’s anniversary I’m afraid does not have a Christmas theme. In fact it’s quite morbid in parts but well, we…
The Mason Cross
There are three memorials in Hull General Cemetery made from cast iron. The Eleanor Crosses Two are shaped in the form of…
Cemetery Wildlife October 2022
October has been a typical mid-Autumn month, with a mixture of rain, cool dull days and warmer than average sunny days. …
Anniversary November 1900
Sometimes these anniversary items highlight how much has changed since they occurred and strangely how much things still stay the same.…
Cemetery Wildlife – September 2022
The first week of September started well, with a few heavy though not prolonged showers providing some much-needed moisture to sustain…
Heritage Open Days
First, the good news Another year over. At least in terms of Heritage Open Days and Hull General Cemetery. It was…
A New Book
There’s a new book. It’s called The Life of Hull General Cemetery Lodge and Other Stories. The book covers the story…
Anniversary October 1875
The anniversary this month shows that the Company could, when it had to, play a mean game of poker. It’s opponents?…
Cemetery Wildlife – August 2022
The very warm dry weather of the last month continued throughout the first half of August and this included another heatwave. …
Anniversary September 1852
The Coming of the Railway This month’s anniversary is related to the railway that once ran past its gates. On the…
An Interesting Find
And Now For Something Completely Different And on a subject that hasn’t been covered here before as far as I know.…
Cemetery Wildlife – July 2022
July has been another dry month, with hardly any rain. In the middle of the month there were some extremely high…
Anniversary July 1857
Yes, I know. I put the month of August last month instead of July for the Anniversary item. Anniversary August 1846…
Anniversary August 1846
The month of August is an interesting anniversary. On the 8th August 1846 the Board of the Cemetery Company had a…
Cemetery Wildlife – June 2022
There has been some fine sunny weather this month. Whilst not quite hot enough to describe as a heatwave, the temperature…
Cemetery wildlife – May 2022
CEMETERY WILDLIFE – MAY 2022 Weather-wise May has been a month of contrasts, with plenty of warm sunny days and some…
The Chairmen
Like most businesses the management of the day to day running of a company can usually be left to middle management.…
Anniversary June 1972
The anniversary this month is poignant. It marks 50 years since the Hull General Cemetery Company dissolved itself. Since that time…
The Sycamore
A few years ago I found this article about Sycamores. I remembered it when there was some argument about the balance…
Cemetery Wildlife April 2022
CEMETERY WILDLIFE APRIL 2022 We have not had many of those famous April showers! The total rainfall has been much lower…
Lichens
I watched a TV programme presented by Chris Packham. It was about the amount of wildlife that a normal suburban garden…
Next Month
The newsletter next month will be my last as editor. To celebrate this there will be two lengthy articles. The first…
Chris Ketchell
Some of you may remember Chris Ketchell. A local historian of note he initiated the Local History Unit in the mid…
Anniversary 1859
The anniversary this month is from May 1859. It is, at least in my opinion, the point where the Cemetery began…
Cemetery Wildlife March 2022
Where do I begin? March has been a great month for the many and varied members of the cemetery wildlife family!…
Anniversary April 1858
Sometimes, you know you are going to have a bad day. From when you get up to when you go to…
Freddy Kruger
Freddy Krüger and Family revealed The grave site C37/3060 in Hull General Cemetery before the plot had been cleared in…
Inspirational Women
This is an article that Bill Longbone produced some years ago for the Facebook site. In it he listed a number…
Cemetery Wildlife February 2022
Cemetery Wildlife February 2022 This is my 12th report for the newsletter. My first one was in March 2021 and I…
Hello, Goodbye: The Art of Knowing When to Leave.
Hello, Goodbye. You may remember the Beatles singing the above song. Not perhaps one of their better songs but it perhaps…
William Tesseyman
William Tesseyman was termed as Hull’s oldest businessmen in his obituary in 1919. He died at the age of 91 whilst…
Anniversary March 1877
This month’s anniversary is interesting. In May 1876 a discussion took place as to whether a clock tower should be built…
Vandalism
A perennial problem cropped up on the first of June 1959. In a letter to the then Chief Constable of Hull…
Cemetery Wildlife January 2022
Cemetery Wildlife January 2022 Cemetery Wildlife December The year started with a very mild and sunny New Year’s Day – quite possibly…
The Cemetery Burial Records
Some of you may remember that, as part of the rehabilitation of Hull General Cemetery, some research and administrative tasks were…
Anniversary February 1847
The date above is a very important anniversary for the cemetery. At an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) of the Board some…
Edward Nequest
Edward Nequest was part of a very select group of people. There were only four superintendents of Hull General Cemetery. John…
Cemetery Wildlife December
Cemetery Wildlife December A few days after going to press last month, storm Arwen hit us. I’m happy to report that…
Anniversary January 1874
New Year’s Day is the anniversary of some interest. This anniversary of January 1874 shows that Gothic may be nice to…
The End of the Road
At the junction between Princes Avenue and Spring Bank West stands a curved row of shops. I suppose you could call…
Cemetery Wildlife November
Cemetery Wildlife November November was a mild but damp month, and rather dull too with less sunshine than the previous month. …
Ms Crackles
Ms Eva Crackles was born in Hull in 1918 and worked as a teacher for many years at Malet Lambert School.…
Anniversary December 1914
The anniversary this month has striking similarities with events today in that it deals with refugees. In August 1914 the United…
Anniversary November 1846
This month is the anniversary of a very important point in the Cemetery’s life. On the 5th of November 1846 the…
Cemetery Wildlife October
The “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” is how John Keats described Autumn in his famous 1820 ode to this season. …
Reverend James Sibree
One of the many men who had first-hand experience of the cholera epidemics in Hull, was the Rev James Sibree. He…
Cemetery Wildlife September
As Summer Ends and Autumn begins we are now at that time of year when the days are roughly the same…
The Hardeys
Mrs Richard Hardey was a noted local female portrait artist. She and her husband Richard are buried in Hull General Cemetery.…
Heritage Open Days
As part of the Heritage Open Days there were two guided walks arranged. The first one, on the 11th, was blessed…
Mysteries
A couple of years ago I was told that there was to be a talk at the History Centre. It was…
Anniversary October 1946
This October we celebrate a more recent anniversary. It’s definitely within living memory. On the 8th October 1946 the Cemetery Company…
William Henry Moss
William Henry Moss was born in London in 1814 and was articled as a solicitor. He came to Hull in the…
APPRA
The Avenues and Pearson Park Resident’s Association, or APPRA as its more commonly called, published an article about the work of…
Tree hugging
Tree hugging gets a bad name. It’s used as pejorative term to denote people who are not on speaking terms with…
Cemetery Wildlife – August 2021
August was a quiet month, weather-wise, with no extremes of heat, cold or rain but with plenty of dull days. Pretty…
Next Month
Next month is Heritage Open Day month. The second week of September is your opportunity to see behind the scenes of…
FOHGC
For those of you lucky enough to live in the Avenues Ward this is old news. However I thought I’d like…
Anniversary September 1868
The anniversary this month is unusual. It shows a more human side to the Hull General Cemetery Company board. I hope…
The Quaker burial ground
Activities in Hull General Cemetery during August. Most of the work in the cemetery during August was taken up with upgrading…
John Symons in the Cemetery
Sometime in the spring of 1889, Alderman John Symons started on a walk from his home at 15, Coltman Street He…
News
Here is an update to the news from last month. Firstly an apology. I wonder how many times I’ve started this…
John Lumsden
Another Mayor of Hull buried in Hull General Cemetery is John Lumsden. Scottish roots Originally from Edinburgh, he married his wife,…
News
Last month a meeting took place between the Councillors, a number of Council Officers and the FOHGC. Andrew Wilson, Parks and…
Next Month
I hope you like the items this month. Next month I’m going to include the Facebook article where two volunteers of…
Summer Wildlife
Summer Wildlife: July What a month of contrasts July has been, going from torrential downpours earlier in the month to a…
Thomas Thompson
Thomas Thompson (1784-1865). The Dick Whittington of Hull. Early life One of the most outspoken and benevolent characters of the first…
Stonemason of the Cemetery; part two.
This is the concluding part of the story of the Hodsman family. The family that provided the two master stonemasons for…