HC Deb 16 March 1855 vol 137 cc638-9
MR. H. BERKELEY

said, he wished to ask the right hon. Baronet the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he was aware that at many of the cemeteries at the east of London—for instance, Keldey's Ground, Bethnal Green, St. James the Less, Bethnal Green, and the Victoria Park Cemetery—they are in the daily practice of burying many bodies in one grave, and do not comply with the conditions on which they have been allowed to continue open, and that nearly all the cemeteries in the neighbourhood of London still adopt the system of pit burial; and, if he were aware of this, whether he meant to prevent it?

SIR GEORGE GREY

said, he was not aware that the practice of what were called pit burials was in general use in the cemeteries in the neighbourhood of London. But a specific statement had been addressed not long ago to the home Office with regard to four of those cemeteries, three of them being among those named by the hon. Gentleman, and the fourth being Abney Park Cemetery. An inspector had been ordered to inquire into the accuracy of that statement, and had given in his Report. It appeared from that document that Victoria Park Cemetery and Abney Park Cemetery were both exempted from the operation of the Act, being two of the cemeteries in Schedule B; so that the Secretary of State had not the power of ordering there a limitation or a discontinuance of the burials. It was otherwise with the remaining two. In Keldey's Ground some irregularity seemed to have existed, but that irregularity did not appear to have been considerable, and on the whole the Report was favourable to the management of that cemetery. He had further to state, that it was to be closed in a few months. With regard to St. James the Less, Bethnal Green, the Report had been most unsatisfactory. No order for closing it had been issued; but an order bad been made that not more than one body should be buried in one grave. That order, however, had been entirely disregarded; and under those circumstances he (Sir G. Grey) had given such directions as would, he hoped, prevent the continuance of those abuses.