Thursday 12th June
Time: 10.30am-3.30pm
Price: Free
Have you ever wondered whether a relative, former resident of your home, or a local figure is buried in Sheffield General Cemetery?
Join us for a Burial Research Open Day, hosted by our dedicated team of researchers in the Samuel Worth Chapel. Whether you’re tracing family history, researching the past of a local building, or simply curious about who rests in this historic site, we’d love to help.
This is a relaxed drop-in session; admission is free and there is no need to book. Please bring along any details you already have – names, addresses, approximate dates – and our team will assist in searching our burial records. If we find a match, we can tell you the location of the grave and share any other information we hold.
While you’re here, you can also enjoy a drink and snack from our café, peruse our book stall and learn more about our research with a short exhibition. Come and discover the lives and legacies woven into Sheffield General Cemetery’s landscape.
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The Demon Drink Book Launch
We will also be launching our latest book, The Demon Drink: Temperance and the Alcohol Trades in Sheffield, with a free outdoor exhibition and trail on the day! Find out more about the book here...
The Demon Drink tells of the lives of licensed victuallers, beerhouse keepers and brewers all buried in the Sheffield General Cemetery alongside temperance activists who appealed to people to ‘sign the pledge’ and abstain from drinking.
Sheffield in the nineteenth century had an amazingly large number of licensed premises which provided alcoholic drinks to quench the thirst while giving employment opportunities for many. Enjoying a social drink after a strenuous day in the steel works or while trying to forget the poverty and deprivation in which you lived, gave pleasure to large sections of society. Others saw the Demon Drink leading to drunken behaviour, poverty, and crime. Temperance campaigners, often connected to Sheffield’s strong Nonconformist chapels and including some very prominent women, offered an alternative lifestyle with temperance societies, hotels, cafes, and coffee houses.
You may also like the following events from Sheffield General Cemetery:
- This Saturday, 24th May, 07:30 pm, Keystones Piano Festival Presents Emergence Collective in Sheffield
- This Sunday, 25th May, 02:00 pm, Keystones Piano Festival Presents Simeon Walker in Sheffield
- This Sunday, 25th May, 06:30 pm, Keystones Piano Festival Presents Robert Mitchell, Laura Cole & Whale Detective in Sheffield
Also check out other
Exhibitions in Sheffield,
Trips & Adventurous Activities in Sheffield.
