St Woolos Cemetery is a large well-preserved landscaped cemetery of about 85 acres situated on a south-west facing slope on the north side of Bassaleg Road, on the western edge of Newport. Following the extension of the Metropolitan Burial Act, in 1853 to England and Wales, the land for the cemetery was purchased from Lord Tredegar in 1854 and laid out by the Newport Burial Committee. The first burial was that of Able Seaman Cooper on 18th July 1854.

St Woolos is a well-preserved example of a mid-Victorian landscaped garden cemetery and the first public cemetery in Wales. The original area was laid out in the early 1850s with additions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, extended further in 1949. The cemetery is planted informally with trees and shrubs, in particular evergreens. Yew, cypress and pine predominate, with rows of pines along present and former boundaries. The circular garden between the two chapels is flanked by two cedars on the south and two redwoods on the north.

The cemetery retains its original layout of a grid pattern, softened by a serpentine path that winds through the cemetery between the main entrance, with gates and lodge (402748) on the south, and the north-east entrance with gates and lodge. The layout is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1887). Opposite the main entrance the path encircles an area laid out as a War Memorial, originally planted with trees. On either side of it are two funerary chapels, that on the west is the former Nonconformist Chapel (13065) in Romanesque style and contrasting with the Gothic former Anglican chapel on the east (13066). On the north side of the cemetery is a Roman Catholic area, included by 1855 with the chapel built c.1880 towards the northern boundary (13064). To its southeast is the former mortuary chapel.

North of the main cemetery is Coed Melyn. Its south-east corner was acquired for use as a Jewish burial ground, a gift from Lord Tredegar in 1859 (406438). It is accessed through a small hexagonal synagogue at the east corner facing Risca road (406440). This cemetery was supplemented with a new burial ground in 1946, with a small brick Ohel being added by c.1951 (406439). A public footpath runs alongside the synagogue and old burial ground to the new one.

Sources:
Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Gwent, p.113 (ref: PGW(Gt)38(MON)). Ordnance Survey six-inch map of Monmouthshire, XXXIII (1887); third-edition 25-inch map, Monmouthshire XXXIII.3 (1921).

RCAHMW, 21 July 2022

Cofnod Safle

St Woolos Cemetery, Newport