Grave Photo Sought in Epsom Cemetery

[bdmayes]

Hello Robert

The handwriting in some of the early burial registers is quite difficult to read and your John Nixon does appear in the online index, but is listed as John Wilson. Also the first person to be buried in Grave F228 is Norah Dixon (sic) in 1882. Her death is registered as Dixon, but it seems a bit of a coincidence.

I am arranging for the John Wilson error to be corrected, but it may be a while before it appears online.

Brian

[hurley42]

Hi Brian

OK thank you for that information. The 'Norah Dixon' reference is curious ! There appears to be no reference on the headstone as such.

Cheers

Robert

[ShaunJ]

I noticed that in the Epsom Explorer transcriptions there are other names in F228, both very young children:  Brooks (1889) and Burrage (1910).

http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/EpsomCemeteryBurialsB.shtml

[hurley42]

Hi ShaunJ

I think the Cemetery Manager said there was a policy of returning 'unpaid for' graves for general reuse by the Board after a set time. Unfortunately I do not have the email anymore.

From my notes I can see that the grave was purchased by Emma Nixon for 3 pounds shortly after John Nixon's death on 23rd November 1927.

Cheers

Robert

[ShaunJ]

In that case the Dixon/Nixon thing is just coincidence.

Norah Dixon's address was given as Kindergarten so presumably she was either an inmate or a servant at Dorothy Mittendorff's Kindergarten & School for destitute girls in East Street

[Langley Vale Sue]

I can confirm there is no reference to Norah Dixon or the names Brooks or Burrage on the gravestone. 
If there is/was a policy of re-issuing graves after a certain length of time and Emma bought the plot after her husband's death that would explain it.

The grave is alongside the tarmac road in the cemetery now, but I don't know how long that road has been in that position.  We would need to see a plan of the cemetery for the years the previous burials took place.

I wonder whether it is significant that John & Emma Nixon's grave reference number has the letter 'A' after the number.

[bdmayes]

The letter 'A' after a grave number indicates that the plot is on one of the tarmac paths or one row back from a path.

[Langley Vale Sue]

Thank you for that information.  Would that mean that a grave without a letter suffix is in the same line, but further back from the road?

I haven't really studied a map of the cemetery - as you can probably tell!

[bdmayes]

In theory it means that, but it does not always work. Plot F228A seems to have originally been on a path, but has newer plots in front of it and is now about 3 rows back from the path.