Eastville Workhouse Burial Ground Memorial Unveiling Ceremony

Eastville Workhouse Burial Ground Memorial Unveiling Ceremony Rosemary Green, Eastville, BS5 6LB 11.00am Monday 16 November 2015

Download the full press release –  Press Release Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group

Event details.

Residents of East Park Estate are to unveil a memorial to more than 4,000 men, women and children who died in Eastville’s notorious Workhouse between 1851 and 1895 and were buried in unmarked paupers’ graves in what is now Rosemary Green.

A six foot Welsh slate standing stone, carved by local stone mason and sculptor Matthew Billington using designs from pupils of May Park Primary School, will be erected on the disused burial ground which has remained unmarked for over 150 years. It is adjacent to the site of the Workhouse, which is now largely covered by housing and a primary school.

The standing stone is the centrepiece of a project which will eventually include a memorial garden and a historical plaque at the original gates of Eastville Workhouse at 100 Fishponds Road, now the entrance to the new East Trees Health Centre.

Over the last year, Eastville residents have raised nearly £10,000 to commission the standing stone, working with members of Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) who initiated an investigation into the pauper burial ground in 2012 and are publishing 100 Fishponds Rd: Life and death in Victorian Workhouse to coincide with the unveiling. After three years of painstaking research, they have collated the names and details of 4,084 men, women and children who died in the Workhouse and were buried in Rosemary Green. They also discovered that another 118 bodies were acquired by the medical school for dissection. They too are remembered on the memorial.

Among those taking part in the unveiling ceremony will be residents of East Park Estate who have campaigned for many years to improve facilities for children in the area, family historians whose ancestors were buried in Rosemary Green, and pupils from May Park Primary School who have contributed to the project.

Funding for the memorial project has principally come from the John James Bristol Foundation, and the Greater Fishponds Neighbourhood Partnership with contributions from Living Easton history group, local branches of the National Union of Journalists and the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union, and relatives of the community activist, the late Hannah Purbrick.

Download the full press release –  Press Release Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group

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Related events:

Thursday 16 November, 7.00pm The Rosemary Green Pauper Burial Ground Memorial Unveiling

Tuesday 17 November, 2.00-6.00pm Opening the archive: Eastville Workhouse burial ground

Thursday 19 November, 7.00-9.00pm Book launch for 100 Fishponds Rd: Life and death in Victorian Workhouse

For more details of the Eastville Workhouse project go to the project page.