Cemeteries and War Memorials
Corsham has three cemeteries that are cared for by the Town Council: the Chapel Cemetery (sometimes referred to as Ladbrook Lane Old Cemetery or the Closed Cemetery); Ladbrook Lane Cemetery , which has been in service since the early 1960s, and Lacock Road Cemetery which came into use in early 2022.
The town has two war memorials. The WW2 memorial is at the Garden of Remembrance while the town’s main War Memorial which features the names of those who lost their lives in both World Wars and is the focus of the town’s Remembrance Day commemorations is on Lacock Road.
Ladbrook Lane Cemetery
Corsham Town Council manages and maintains Ladbrook Lane Cemetery as a peaceful and attractive resting place to serve the residents of Corsham. We offer a sympathetic service to the bereaved and deal with enquiries from the public, funeral directors and monumental masons. Fees and charges are set annually.
The cemetery is situated along Ladbrook Lane, between Lacock Road and Gastard, and was laid out in the 1960s after the adjoining Chapel Cemetery was closed for new graves. The layout offers a range of interment choices, such as lawn, traditional and cremation plots. Maintenance of the cemetery is carried out by Town Council staff, our grounds contractor, our grave-digging contractor, stonemasons and building contractors as and when required. Regular inspections take place, including memorial checks.
The regulations governing the cemetery are reviewed periodically to ensure they are in line with public opinion. Full copies are kept at the Town Hall are issued to funeral directors and monumental masons, as well as to the public on request. A summary of the regulations is displayed at the cemetery entrance.
Applications for purchase of plots, burials and monuments are administered by Town Council staff, who can also help find records of family history for burials that have taken place since 1964. Call 01249 702130 for help and advice.
Pre-1964, the cemetery was run by St Bartholomew’s Church and they hold the records. St Bart’s can be contacted via Church House, on 01249 701720 or email. Further information on St Bart’s and other local churches can be found at corshamandlacockchurches.org.uk .
As of early 2022, it was estimated that Ladbrook Lane cemetery will be open for new graves for approximately five more years, hence the opening of the cemetery on Lacock Road .
Further Information on Ladbrook Lane
Please do call the Town Hall for further help and advice regarding the cemetery.
Lacock Road Cemetery
Lacock Road Cemetery, which opened in 2022, covers 0.9 hectares (2.2 acres) and will be used well into the next century as a final resting place for many of Corsham’s residents. It is designed as a peaceful place to visit and is maintained in an environmentally sensitive way. The cemetery includes a small, wooded area with wildflower planting, and 300m of new hedging
We allow memorial trees and benches in designated parts of the cemetery. Please contact the Town Council on 01249 702130, or email towncouncil@corsham.gov.uk, if you are interested in adding to the peace and beauty of this site.
Further Information on Ladbrook Lane
Please do call the Town Hall for further help and advice regarding the cemetery.
The Chapel Cemetery
The Chapel Cemetery (sometimes referred to as Ladbrook Lane Old Cemetery or the Closed Cemetery) is primarily maintained by Corsham Town Council as a peaceful resting place and an important wildlife habitat. Overall responsibility for the cemetery is divided between the Town Council, Wiltshire Council, and the Corsham and Lacock Churches .
Burial records are held by St Bartholomew’s Church, which also has responsibility for the chapel itself. St Bart’s can be contacted via Church House, on 01249 701720 or email. There are also 22 war graves which are cared for by members of the Royal British Legion and theCommonwealth War Graves Commission
Garden of Remembrance
The Garden of Remembrance, on the corner of Stokes Road and Station Road, is home to Corsham’s Second World War memorial. (The names on the memorial were added to the war memorial on Lacock Road in the 1980s.)
The memorial to the 43 men the parish lost in the war was unveiled on 1 November 1947 by the then Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. Less than three weeks later, as HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, he married Princess Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey.
Philip came to Corsham as an instructor to HMS Royal Arthur, a Royal Navy leadership training establishment, and the ceremony to open the garden and unveil the memorial was his first public engagement. The land for the Garden of Remembrance had been gifted to the town by two pillars of the Corsham community: Agnes Tennant and Laura Rigden. They asked that it was “developed as a garden of fragrant memory for those who, between 1939 and 1945, paid the supreme sacrifice.”
On 1 November 2021, as a memorial to His Royal Highness following his passing, at the age of 99, earlier that year, an English oak was planted at the Garden of Remembrance. Council Chairman Cllr Steve Abbott was joined by the Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire (the Queen’s representative in the county), Sarah Rose Troughton to plant the tree as part of a special ceremony. The oak was also registered as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy, a tree-planting initiative to mark the Platinum Jubilee in 2022.
The War Memorial
Corsham’s war memorial, remembering those from the Corsham parish who lost their lives in two World Wars, stands on Lacock Road. It is the focal point of the annual Remembrance Day parade and service each November.
Erected in 1921, the memorial was funded – as so many across the country at that time – by local subscriptions.
Originally a memorial to those who fell during the First World War, the names of those from the parish who lost their lives in the Second World War were added in the 1980s.
In recent times, the memorial has been refurbished and the names repainted. In 2014, to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, two commemorative benches were installed in the garden area at the War Memorial, which is maintained by volunteers from the Royal British Legion’s Corsham branch.
