[2] It was one of many cemeteries built in the Victorian era in response to the rapid population increase in the 19th century.

Reading Cemetery was built on farm land outside the existing borough boundaries at a site called Hattons Platt, which was owned by a Mr. Cholmeley.

The site is of great local historical interest with many large memorials, three of which are Grade II listed.

Here stands a Screen Wall memorial to those buried in Plot 72 and elsewhere in the cemetery whose graves could not be marked by headstones.

[2] The grave of Mary Gordon Burnett and Hugh Edward Walford who set up the successful Reading Blind Aid Society are also there.

The family are associated with Charles Dickens with Henry being his brother-in-law and inspired the character of Nicholas Nickleby.