Site record MDR22860 - Site of Cemetery of Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Chapel Street, Belper

Former site of the cemetery belonging to the former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Chapel Street, Belper. 'A churchyard associated with the Methodist Chapel is depicted on the Belper Survey maps from 1820, and is definitively extended… on the Tithe map for Belper from 1844. The Churchyard… is first labelled as a burial ground on the 1st edition OS map of 1880, though the last official burial there is believed to have taken place in 1856, although subsequent burials may have taken place. The 1951 - 1971 OS maps show that the development area was no longer being used as a burial ground, and was instead used as a car park. In 19974 archaeological works were undertaken to exhume the known burials from the area of the cemetery in advance of the construction of the B&M Home Store. The area of the cemetery was used as a car park and no ground works were undertaken in this area during the construction of the original B&M store.' (1) Disarticulated human remains were excavated in 2016 during groundworks associated with a proposed extension of the current shop on the site. The remains were from re-worked, unstratified deposits, were fragmentary, and were reinterred. (1)