Today, it caters for all faiths with separate burial grounds and chapels for Jews and Catholics and a growing one for Muslims together with two military cemeteries.

Much of the original cemetery is a County Wildlife Site and contains grassland and a wide selection of mature trees.

A number of possible sites were considered but eventually former farmland in Earlham was acquired and purchased with a loan of £5000 from Gurney's Bank.

Included in his original plans were lodges, offices, twin Gothic chapels and the planting of trees and shrubs.

A statue designed by John Bell and made by Doultons and named The Spirit of the Army – Armed Science was unveiled by Lord Waveney in 1878.

In spite of the popularity of cremation the cemetery is rapidly filling up and this has led to recent proposals for natural burials.

Approximately 220 metres (720 ft) north-west of the crematorium and adjacent to Bowthorpe Road is the small brick and tile mortuary chapel standing in the Jewish burial ground designed by Benest in 1856.

[3] Buried close to the Bowthorpe Road entrance lies the grave of eminent local architect, George Skipper.

John Middleton one of the Norwich School of painters is buried close to the main drive adjacent to the crematorium.

There is also a special memorial to a serviceman buried among civilian air raid casualties whose grave could not be individually marked by a headstone.