This letter to the Editor proposes the use of some land (presumably on the north side of what is now Uffington Road) for use as a new burial ground for victims of contagious diseases. He choses not to give his name, perhaps because of his poor grammar! Stamford Cemetery was opened in 1855.
“Burial Ground at Stamford,
And other Benefactions to the Town.
Mr. Editor, – The Board of Health* in Stamford have (sic) lately called the attention of the town to the crowded state of the church-yard, and the necessity of providing a burial-ground without the town for the interment of persons who may die of contagious disease. I beg leave to point out an ample site which through the beneficence of an early patron of the town was provided as a place of sepulture; and which, though it is has not been for some centuries resorted to as such, but has latterly been used as a stack-yard and as feeding pasture, is nevertheless, there is every reason to believe, consecrated ground, and is rightly available to the town for the purpose contemplated by the Board of Health. The ground to which I refer is situation at the East end of Stamford, and is the tongue of land which extends, in three small inclosures, on the North side of the turnpike road leading from the town to the Infirmary. These inclosures (one used as a stack-yard) are now in the occupation of Mr. Alderman Francis Simpson, and are rented by him of the Rector of St. Michael’s church; but it is indisputable that they form the piece of land which, in the reign of King John, was given to Earl Warren to the town as a burial-ground; and being ground used or available for such purpose, they have been properly entered in the Ecclesiastical Terrier as part of the possessions of the Rectory, (the Clergyman having a right to the herbage of church-yards), but they are really the property of the parish. This gift is noticed by all the historians of the town, – Butcher, Peck, Howgrave, Harrod, and Blore. In Harrod’s History of Stamford, information on this subject will be found in pages 59 and 86: and from Howgrave’s history I copy the following useful account of the above and many other gifts to the town.
Your’s(sic), AN INHABITANT.”
The Stamford Mercury, 1st June, 1832.
*The Board of Health was not introduced until the Public Health Act 1848, so he must be referring to a local body.