Congregationalist Cemetery, Ponsharden
In May 2012 a volunteer group began to restore the burial ground which (combined with an adjacent Jewish cemetery) is now a protected Scheduled Monument of national importance.
The cemetery sits at the lower end of a small spur of land which runs down to the Penryn River (a branch of the Fal estuary).
From the top of the entrance steps, a path (with traces of edging in-situ) extends through the centre of the burial ground, terminating at the southern boundary.
[4][5] From the late 17th century Falmouth (and to a lesser extent Penryn) supported a significant number of nonconformist religious groups, including Congregationalists (also known as Independents), Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Quakers.
Abia died on 18 August 1808 and was buried ‘amid a vast concourse which had filled the Ground from the novelty of a Burial amongst Dissenters’ (over 700 people attended the funeral).
[10] Falmouth's first burial was that of Mrs Christiana Daubuz ‘a Lady of eminent piety & one of the chief supporters of the Independent Chapel’ who in November 1808 was interred ‘amid a very large concourse of persons'.
The last entry in the burial registers is dated November 1905[14] but existing headstones show that several interments took place after this, including that of Elizabeth Tully Cook in 1912 and four members of the Newcombe family of Penryn in the 1920s and 1930s.
[17][5] A Cornwall Council Archaeological Report of 2010 summarised the importance of the cemeteries, stating that "their time spans, rare features, group value, siting, varied evidence of past religious, social and economic life, complexity and natural diversity combine to make them highly significant".
[19] In parallel with the survey, the volunteers also reseeded the site with grass, and efforts were made to re-establish the few examples of native flora (such as the Early Purple Orchid) that had survived amongst the dense brambles and ivy.
The volunteers' long-term objectives include raising funds to repair the damaged monuments, entrance-way and boundary walls, as well as officially opening the cemetery as a historic landmark.
Until 2012, minimal information existed about the site in terms of burial figures, the quantity of surviving headstones, the families they represent and an understanding of the congregations that utilised the cemetery.
It was noted that if an accurate study was to be made, the cemetery would first require methodical clearance by hand to expose the numerous fallen, low-lying or obscured headstones and tombs.
[23] The survey recorded a total of 91 monuments surviving at the cemetery, representing a diverse range of styles from simple slate headstones to ornate vaults with iron railings and stone urns.
[23] The survey highlighted a wide range of birthplaces, a direct result of the graveyard serving two busy ports (Falmouth then being a major gateway to the overseas Empire).
The cemetery also holds the remains of many people born outside of Cornwall, including natives of Scotland and Wales as well as Devon, Dorset, Dover, Essex, Liverpool, London, Somerset, Suffolk and Wiltshire.
On site can also be found tailors and drapers, boot and shoe makers, builders and carpenters, doctors, surgeons and druggists, grocers and fruit merchants, tea and spirit dealers, a lawyer, accountant and two clerks.
