10. Burial Ground Controversy

By default, the majority of the population of colonial Launceston, convict and free, was considered “Church of England”, and the “Episcopalian Burial Ground” was consecrated in 1823 in what is now Cypress Street. An estimated 9000 people were buried there before its closure in 1929. The site apparently went through long periods of neglect, and in 1848, a sensationalised article in the Cornwall Chronicle was scathing of the neglect which it attributed to the “Ministers and Wardens of St. John’s Church, and a disgrace to the inhabitants of the town for permitting it.” Ongoing neglect led to it being permanently closed, with some relocation of monuments and remains to Carr Villa, before the site was levelled and became Broadland Park – playing fields for Broadland House School, now Grammar Junior Campus, in 1953. More details at https://resources.allsaints.network/cypress-street-burial-ground