Burmantofts Cemetery

The site was approved as part of the Leeds Burial Grounds Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. ciii), initially to cover an area of 10 acre, and saw its first burial on 14 August 1845. The first burial, that of a child, was officiated over by Jabez Tunnicliff, a Baptist minister who was prominent in Temperance circles. Eventually, some twenty years later, Tunnicliff himself would end up being interred in the cemetery. It was initially known as Burmantofts Cemetery (at least until 1895), and Leeds Burial Ground, but is now popularly known as Beckett Street Cemetery, and was one of the first municipal cemeteries in England; one that was bought and organised by the town council with public funds. A new…