Cottenham Dissenters' Cemetery

06/09/2026

The Friends of Histon Road Cemetery will be holding their Heritage Open Day on Sunday, 20th September - with displays, tours and activities taking place from 11am–4pm. Details shared below...
..and by happy coincidence, it’s the day after our own Heritage Open Day at Cottenham Dissenters’ Cemetery on Saturday, 19th September, 10.30am - 4.30pm! Details shared soon.

So why not make a weekend of it and visit both? Two cemeteries, two Heritage Open Days, and plenty of local history to discover!

On Sunday 20th September we are once again taking part in Open Cambridge, with displays, tours and activities from 11-4.

We will have displays about the Cemetery, tours around it and craft activities and we are very proud to say our new Patron, Professor Mary Beard herself, will be opening the event at 11am. Come along and discover more about us!

Discover everyday histories in Histon Road Cemetery in the north of the city, listed Grade II* by Historic England (the highest grade a cemetery can be) as the best surviving example of a "garden cemetery" designed by polymath and leading horticulturalist and garden designer of his day, John Claudius Loudon. As a Nonconformist cemetery, it holds the remains of those refused entry to university who turned their considerable talents elsewhere. It also served one of the poorest parts of the town at that time and a wide variety of everyday trades and local families are remembered here: entrepreneurs, artists, social reformers, domestic servants, shopkeepers, tradesmen, missionaries. We have stories of local figures whose names will be familiar to older residents and some whose names are known across the world - the family of Alice Todd, whose husband Charles “Telegraph” Todd helped connect Australia to the rest of the world and after whom Alice Springs is named; and links to Captain Bligh of The Bounty, the co-author of Monty Python’s "Jabberwocky", a Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medallist, the turnkey of Cambridge prison, philanthropists and campaigners for the poor and for workers' and women's rights. Family names on tombs and vaults – Thoday, Mitcham, Sturton – connect Cambridge past with Cambridge present, and the memorials to local people lost in war remind us of the debt we owe.

Histon Road Cemetery is also a beautiful environment managed for nature and wildlife.

11:30 History Tour
12:30 Nature Tour
14:00 History Tour
15:00 Nature Tour

https://www.opencambridge.cam.ac.uk/events/everyday-histories-histon-road-cemetery

https://histonroadcemetery.org/

The full Open Cambridge 2026 programme is at https://www.opencambridge.cam.ac.uk/events and a pdf version can be viewed and downloaded at https://www.opencambridge.cam.ac.uk/open-cambridge-2026-pdf-programme

Open Cambridge is part of Heritage Open Days https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/

National Federation of Cemetery Friends

27/08/2026

Do you have nonconformist family? Find out more about researching ancestors who defied the Church of England with our guide:

13/08/2026

Eclipse watching in the Cemetery lastnight 🌘

07/07/2026

This evening we were delighted to welcome the 2nd Cottenham Brownies for a walk and talk tour of the cemetery.

The Brownies asked some thoughtful and very relevant questions, leading to some engaging discussions and great ideas. It was a pleasure to see both the children and adults so interested and we all thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

A big Thankyou to the 2nd Cottenham Brownies for coming to visit us and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

05/07/2026

⚠️ ADVANCE NOTICE - We are scheduled to have essential tree work carried out tomorrow (Monday 6th July). To ensure public safety, the cemetery will need be CLOSED while this work is being undertaken.

We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Thank you.

25/06/2026

The cemetery wasn't always as publicly accessible as it is today, with the gates being permanently locked and only opened for funerals or by arrangement with the sexton.

This clipping from the Cambridge Independent Press, June 1901, reported “it was resolved that the cemetery should be open to adults every Sunday afternoon from five to six o’clock during the summer months.”

This kind of arrangement was quite typical for smaller Victorian cemeteries. They were treated as sacred, private grounds rather than open civic spaces, and access was carefully regulated.

23/06/2026

Please spare a minute to nominate us in the special draw and help us win a £5,000 grant towards our community and volunteer initiatives in helping to maintain the cemetery.

Nominations are now open (22nd June - 5th July 2026) and you can vote for us here - https://tinyurl.com/3tzw4eda

Thank you for your support.

21/06/2026

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our stand at the Fen Edge Festival over the weekend. It was lovely to meet so many of you and chat about the cemetery. Our historic bier even made a special appearance on the Sunday!

Thanks to all the trustees efforts in making the weekend go so well.

18/06/2026

We'll be stepping outside the cemetery gates for a change of scene this coming weekend as we head to the Fen Edge Festival, where we'll have a stand about the cemetery's heritage. We’ll also be offering a ‘Find a Grave’ lookup service for anyone searching for a lost relative or ancestor buried in the cemetery (wish us luck with that!).

Do pop in and say hello if you're around - you can find us in the marquee outside the front of the Village College, alongside stands from Cottenham Village Society, Fen Edge Archaeology Group and Fen Edge Twinning Association.

For more information about the Festival, visit: fenedge.co.uk/category/fen-edge-festival/

12/06/2026

Trustees marked the 181st anniversary of the cemetery today by leaving a posy of flowers on Ann Norman’s grave.