Denne Road Graveyard

Lych Gate from the road

Lych Gate from the inside

The Hurst gravestones

Henry Mitchell’s gravestone

The Olivers gravetone

The Eversfield Plot

Denne Road graveyard is located in Denne Road. In a stroke of humorous estate management the former chapel is now occupied by the marriage guidance charity Relate.

Relate’s Horsham Office

The graveyard is now full and Hills Cemetery is used for burials but this graveyard is maintained to allow visitors to pay their respects and explore the graves still in place. The area to the left of the Lych Gate is owned and managed by the town council whereas the area to the right is the responsibility of the church. There are a number of graves significant to the history of Horsham as the photographs reveal.

The Allcard Stone

A number of Commonwealth War Graves are on site and these are documented on the Hill’s Farm Cemetery blog. One wargrave not listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) as being buried here in Horsham is that of Midshipman James Forster Boulton RN who died, aged 15, along with 734 other men when the HMS Monmouth was torpedoed in the Battle of Coronel in 1914. Midshipman Boulton’s death is recorded by the CWGC on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

James Forster Boulton

In February 2009 a book documenting the location of the graves with a guide was published by Horsham Museum. Entitled ‘Waking the Dead, A Pocket Guide to Denne Road Cemetery’ it is available from the museum for £5.00

The lych gate was restored in 1980 and the inscription above it reads:

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All that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth

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The Hurst family have a family plot on the eastern side. The family are notable for providing Horsham with MPs and mayors and for donating key land for municipal use. Park House and its land was once owned by the Hursts as was the land on which the hospital, fire station, police station and courts are now built, hence the name Hurst Road. For a number of years the Black Jug was known as the Hurst Arms.

Henry Michell is buried nearby, noted for owning a number of breweries. He also purchased the last Horsham gaol, sited where Park Terrace East and Park Terrace West are now. The building was demolished and salvaged as posted elsewhere on this blog.

Close to the above plots is the family stone for Thomas Oliver and his family. Oliver built the current Tanbridge House just off the Worthing Road and made his money building Victorian railway lines and tunnels.

The Peace Garden