Strangers Burial Ground
In 1787 the Strangers Burial Ground was opened as an overflow graveyard of St Andrews Church in Clifton. The ‘strangers’ referred to non-parishioners, some were visitors to the Hotwells, some served in the military. It was closed in 1871.
Bristol City Council, which owns the land, closed it to the public due to hazardous collapsed graves. Repairs were carried out to the boundary wall in 2016, but the grass was no longer being mown and ivy, brambles, butterbur and alcanet had covered much of the more shaded area. Two volunteers then uncovered and recorded graves which had been hidden by leaves and vegetation for years and reseeded the grass. Shrubs and flowers that encourage pollinators have replaced the weeds while the section beyond the two yews has been left mostly undisturbed, a home for foxes, badgers, frogs and birds.
Graves of interest
Thomas Beddoes b. 13 April 1760 d. 24 December 1808
Beddoes was an English physician and scientific writer. Born in Shifnal, Shropshire, he became a reforming practitioner and teacher of medicine, and an associate of leading scientific figures.
He was particularly concerned with the plight of the poor, since tuberculosis and other contagious diseases were endemic in the new industrialised towns. Beddoes was keen to apply newly discovered gases, notably carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, to try to treat such diseases.
In 1792 Beddoes moved to Bristol and set up home in Clifton. In Hotwells the medical “spa” was long-established and in the spring of 1793, Beddoes opened a clinic (the “Pneumatic Institution”) at 11, Hope Square, Hotwells. Two of the patients who underwent the new gas treatment were Tom Wedgewood and Gregory Watt, the sons of two of his friends Josiah Wedgewood and James Watt.
Anna Augusta Foville b. 1772 d. 23 April 1793
The second daughter of Romantic poet Charlotte Turner Smith, Anna Augusta married a French emigrée from the French revolution, Alexandre Marc Constant Foville. Anna Augusta suffered from consumption and in her letters Charlotte Smith mentions expensive doctors she paid to attend her daughter. She died shortly after losing her three-day old son.
Samuel Thompson b. 1786 d. 16 Aug 1806
Inscription: In memory of Samuel Thompson, Late servant of William Thompson Of Jamaica Esq. He was unfortunately Drowned in the Avon On the 16thAugust 1806 Aged 20 years. This stone is laid In testimony of the regard His master bears to his Memory for his services Which since the early age Of 7 years He discharged faithfully And with Integrity. He died lamented by His Master And by all who knew him.
