Images of Wales

Aberdare Cemetery
Aberdare, Glamorgan

Photography by John Ball - 10: 00am 25th February 1998
(with Agfa ePhoto307 digital camera)

The Aberdare Burial Board (Glamorgan) was set up in 1857, by the Aberdare parish vestry, Glamorgan, under the Burial Act 1853. Land on Hirwaun Common at Trecynon, south of Hirwaun, was purchased for a cemetery which opened in 1860, and was extended in 1906. The Burial Board was taken over in 1903, by Aberdare Urban District Council under section 62 of the Local Government Act 1894.

The noticeboard (left) at the entrance to the cemetery, gives the opening hours and other details. The contact phone number shown is no longer valid.
Burial registers for Aberdare Cemetery are now [2011] held by:

Burial Clerk (Cemeteries Section)
Rock Grounds
Green Street
Aberdare CF44 7AE
Telephone: (0)1685 885345

Above: The cemetery covers a vast area of land. The mature cedar trees
enhance the scene.

Above: The cemetery hosts a wide range of different styles of gravestone,
often reflecting the financial status of the deceased.

Above: Many of the monumental inscriptions are in the Welsh language.
The headstone on the left commemorates Sarah Ann Griffiths, and that
on the right, Zachariah Lloyd.

Above: Many of the inscriptions recount tragedies such as the one
that befell Mary Darby's husband Rees, who "...met with a fatal
accident at Empire Colliery, Cwmgwrach..." as recently as 1949.
He was 43 when the accident happened.

Above: Some of the gravestones are badly eroded (left) making the inscription illegible.
However others, such as the one marking the death of John Griffiths in 1869 (right),
have survived intact.

Above: In some cases, such as on the left, the burial vault has collapsed and
the earth subsided, often causing the gravestone to lean at a precarious angle
or even topple over. Iron railings like those surrounding the plot on the right
seem to have been popular in Victorian times.