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| The monument to Eliza West and Charles Cann |
Having quickly completed my recce for the Nether Edge Festival, I wanted to make the most of the sunshine and headed off to south-west entrance to Sheffield General Cemetery, stopping briefly to photograph the Grade II Listed Montague House (c.1836) – one of the three structures thought to be by Samuel Worth and built with coarse grained and often pebbly Chatsworth Grit.
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| Montague House |
I have briefly visited Sheffield General Cemetery on several occasions, with the last time being on the November 2023 Sheffield U3A Geology field trip, when the afternoon walk around Nether Edge was effectively cancelled due to the very cold weather – as briefly described in my report on a recce of Cressbrook Dale – but I have never fully explored it.
Making my way down the path to Sandford’s Walk, I then continued down the path at the top of the catacombs (1836), which had fallen into a state of considerable disrepair and were restored during the programme of refurbishment of the cemetery from 2021 to 2023.
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| An information board explaining the history of the catacombs |
I had previously walked along the path beneath the catacombs, but had never realised that in 1937 a third tier was added using 140 burial boxes made of reinforced concrete. By the turn of the C19, severe cracks had become apparent in the stonework of the lower parts, and the boxes were removed to improve the structural stability during the restoration, with one now on display.
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| A detail of the retained concrete burial box |
Continuing down the walkway, I stopped briefly to have a quick look at the memorial to Eliza West (d.1916) and her husband Charles Cann (d.1929), which is built with two different granites. During the Heritage Open Days event in 2023, led by Peter Kennett, I was too busy taking photos to hear Peter describe these and he does not mention them in the geological trail published in 2001.
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| The monument to Eliza West and Charles Cann |
The dark red granite looks to me like the variety from the Ross of Mull, which is the largest peninsula on the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. The grey variety might be from Aberdeen, but the granite from the Rubislaw Quarry, which is the most well known granite from this area, is typically a darker grey in colour.
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| A detail of the granites at the Eliza West and Charles Cann monument |
Reaching the end of the walkway, I then headed along the Robert Marnock pathway past the catacombs until I reached the Stone Spiral, which was designed by Adrian Hallam and installed in 2024 using sandstones, crinoidal limestone, dolomitic limestone, granites and slate from the UK.
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| The Stone Spiral |
As seen in the photograph used for the accompanying Rock in the General Cemetery leaflet, the large lumps of rock used for this wonderful educational resource have since been obscured by a natural patina, dirt and algae, which makes it very difficult to identify each type of stone.
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| The Rock in the General Cemetery leaflet |
At the Montague Street entrance to the cemetery, there is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) screen wall, which commemorates the 40 military personnel that perished during WWI. Sheffield General Cemetery was considered too dilapidated to have CWGC headstones there and the screen wall was placed in Sheffield City Cemetery, but it was relocated to its present site in 2015.
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| The screen wall |
