Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 02 December 1892
The New Cemetery at Conisboro’
The First Interment
Considerable interest was centred in the first interment which took place this week in the new cemetery at Conisboro’. There would have been some interest in any case, but additional attention was drawn to the matter on account of circumstances well-known to the parishioners.
There has been a division of opinion amongst the members of the Burial Board as to the consecration of the ground and this has been manifest from the time when the local authority was formed. It is believed that the bulk of the residents are opposed to consecration, and certainly the majority who attended the parish meetings thus declared themselves, although there seemed to be a tendency in favour of the ceremonial of dedication.
The late vicar, the Rev. J. G. Wood, was stoutly in favour of the consecration of the ground, and be declared that this must inevitably ensue as a result of the Act under which the Burial Board was formed. The matter has been fully placed before the Archbishop of York, and the final answer from his Grace has not yet been received. Meanwhile, it was thought unlikely that the cemetery would be made use of, seeing that nothing had been done beyond securing the approval of the Home Office as to the site.
The decision of the majority of the Burial Board to allow an interment this week has therefore provoked more than ordinary interest and if the time for the burial had been more publicly known. there would have been a much larger attendance.
Half past two o’clock on Wednesday afternoon was the time arranged for the funeral to take place. The body was that of the late Mr. George Sykes, aged 53, who died last Sunday somewhat suddenly from apoplexy. Messrs. Earnehaw Bros. were the undertakers. When the hearse and a private coach reached the cemetery, there were present near the entrance gates Messrs. C. Kilner, J. Blyth. J. Clarkson and C. Holmes, members of the Board, along with the clerk (Mr. J. Maxfield.) The absentee members were Messrs. G. Walker, J.P., W. H. Chambers, and Nicholson.
A number of persons were in the cemetery, and on the footpath outside the ground at the time of the interment. The Rev. W. Pearson, of Doncaster, superintendent minister of the Wesleyan Connection was in attendance, not hardly expecting that the Rev. W. Williams would be well enough to officiate, (he has been indisposed for several days,) but the local minister accompanied the mourners to the cemetery and read the first burial service as the procession wended its way to the Chapel. It had been rumoured that an effort would be to stop the funeral ceremonial, but nothing of this kind was attempted.
The remains were placed in a grave nine feet deep, not far from the outer boundary of the cemetery, near the highway. The grave was dry and of a sandy character.
The cemetery is on an excellent site, on the road to Kilnhurst, and the £2,000 expended in connection with the grounds and buildings, seem to have been well laid out.
It is expected that an application will be made to the Home Office as to the closing of the churchyard, and if this is done, it is said that those who belong to the Established Church can demand that half the cemetery be consecrated.