Whickham, Quaker burial ground

HER Number:
677

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Whickham, Quaker burial ground

Place:
Whickham

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Inhumation Cemetery

Site Type: Specific:
Friends Burial Ground

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C17

Form of Evidence:
Implied Evidence

Description:
The notion that there was a Quaker burial ground in a field at the west end of Whickham stems from the early 19th century antiquarian, Surtees. He reported that there were 2 gravestones in Whickham churchyard, close to the church, commemorating George and Aibiah Hodgson, 1667 and 1669, and on one of them an inscription recording their removal from the above field in 1784. He then said they were Quaker memorials. There is no evidence, however, that the Hodgsons were Quakers, but a local field (Ordnance Survey field 670) said to be known locally as the "Graveyard" or "Kirk Garth field" is reported to be the source of the 2 stones and other stones were apparently seen there in the early 19th century. The 2 stones may still be in the churchyard.

Easting:
209

Northing:
615

Grid Reference:
NZ209615

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 677 >> R. Surtees, 1820, History of...Durham, II, M. Phillips, 1894, Notes on some forgotten burying grounds of the Society of Friends, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XVI, 195-8 W. Bourn, 1893, Whickham Parish, 18-19 M. Phillips, 1917, Additional isolated burials, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 3, VII (for 1915-16), p. 179