‘Old’ Wallsend Cemetery 1863-1896

‘Old’ Wallsend Cemetery was located in what is now Rest Park between Thomas Street and Newcastle Road, Wallsend, NSW.
Wallsend was named by Alexander Brown after his home town in England when he began coal mining in the area in 1858. Before this date the area had been used for agriculture. The growth of the population in the district by the end of the 1850s to early 1860s indicated the need for a local cemetery as a funeral in Newcastle could occupy a whole day.
In 1864 the Wallsend Coal Company granted a piece of land for a cemetery however some burials had occurred before this date. Official records remain from 1865, the date of the first burial for which a record was kept, until the cemetery was closed in 1896. From 1896 a new Wallsend Cemetery was opened in Sandgate Road, Birmingham Gardens.
This publication has recorded over 3,700 burials in Old Wallsend Cemetery including 44 burials that occurred before 1864.