Public Health concerns about overcrowded graveyards in urban areas in the 1840s meant that local councils were enabled to establish cemeteries. It is unusual to find that chapels built after that date in urban areas have burial grounds attached. I stand to be corrected, but I am not aware of any Wesleyan chapel in South Wales with a burial ground. Maybe this also reflected a Wesleyan concern with the living rather than the dead (Matthew 22:32). There may have been theological reasons why certain denominations were more likely to establish burial grounds around their chapels than others, but this list is probably not the place to discuss it. From a practical point of view, it may well have been easier to obtain a plot of land from a landowner simply for the erection of a place of worship and/or a schoolroom than it would have been to obtain it with the additional use as a burial ground. Much land in South Wales was leasehold in the 19th century, and many places of worship were originally erected on land leased for a low ground rent but with restrictive covenants to restrict the purposes for which the site might be used. Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 4:34 PM Subject: [GLA] Treharris Wesleyan Church > > Good afternoon to all > > I recently received the obituary notice for my Grandmother, Mary Ann > Ellis, and although she was buried at Beechgrove Cemetery Treharris in > March 1945, she was 'a member of Treharris Wesleyan Church'. I am > wondering if this Church didn't have it's own graveyard and so used a part > of Beechgrove? > > Thanks - Gwen