Manor Park Cemetery and Crematorium

From medieval times East and West Ham was intensively farmed so that by the late Thirteenth Century most woodland in the area had disappeared, apart from Hamfrith Wood, which was not felled until c.1700 and which had been situated between what is now Romford Road and Manor Park Cemetery. In 1851 philanthropist Samuel Gurney, already owner of Woodgrange and Ham House Manors, had purchased Hanrith farm for £17,710; after his death in 1856, it was inherited by his grandson John (whose father, also John, had too died in 1856) who sold the estate to the British Land Company in 1872 from whom the Manor Park Cemetery Company acquired it in 1874. Manor Park Cemetery was opened the same year by on the eastern part of what had been Hamfrith Farm, for which records of land ownership date back to the late 1700s. The remaining section of the estate was laid out with residential housing.

The cemetery today has two areas of woodland, the largest in its north-east corner, and many woodland birds are found here. There are rows of mature lime trees along the boundaries and an avenue of horse chestnuts follows the old path through the middle, with other trees scattered throughout, including cedar and other evergreens and conifers. The cemetery today has two chapels, one for burial services and one for cremation services. The OS Map 2nd Edition revised 1893 (London Edition of 1894-96) XXXIII shows the cemetery with two Mortuary Chapels, one Cof E and the other Non-conformist chapel built in 1877. The original C of E chapel was largely destroyed by bombing in 1944 apart from its spire, which still remains and was rebuilt in brick with a crematorium added to its east end in 1955. The OS Map 25in to the mile, published in 1961 (TQ4085-TQ4185 - BA) shows the Chapel and Crematorium, Garden of Remembrance with an octagonal central structure, 2 War Memorials, but the Nonconformist chapel is no longer identified. This is now the Columbarium. The Garden of Remembrance today has extensive rose beds around the central open sided octagonal pavilion in which a small fountain plays; this garden has had new paths created to allow wheelchair users. Other features in the well-kept cemetery grounds include a sunken garden, new rose garden and the Susan Hibberd Flower Court. In the woodland is a secluded area of graves, entered through a rustic pergola. The cemetery has a War Memorial to the dead of both world wars, an area of War Graves, and a Civilian War Memorial commemorating the 57 people buried here in a mass grave, who died as a result of a direct hit in a residential area near Whitta Road.  The memorial consists of a low Portland stone wall within a stone kerb with a central block with the arms of East Ham Borough, and the names of the civilian victims inscribed along the sides and ends; it was erected in 1950 by the Imperial War Graves Commission, its architect R. Hobday and was intended to have a surrounding yew hedge with 8 silver birches planted and two seats according to the original designs held by the Commonwealth Graves Commission.

The first burial was that of William Nesbitt on 25 March 1875. Among those buried here are two holders of the Victoria Cross: John Cornwell (1900-1916), the second youngest holder of the medal, posthumously awarded for gallantry at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and also Sidney Godley (d.1957), one of the first five soldiers to receive the award in 1914. Also buried here is Annie Chapman (d.1888), the second victim of Jack the Ripper; Mary Orchard (1830-1906), whose monument was erected 'in grateful memory' by the four children of Queen Victoria's second daughter Princess Alice. For forty years she had looked after the Princess's children, the youngest of whom, Alexandra (Alix), became Empress of Russia on her marriage to Nicholas II; the oldest daughter became the mother of Earl Mountbatten. Sarah Dearman (nee Chapman) is also buried here, with a memorial celebrating her work fighting for women's rights and conditions. A matchgirl at the Bryant and May Factory in Bow, she was a leader in the Matchgirls Strike of 1888 and later President of the Matchgirls Union, the first representative to the TUC at national level.