A World Heritage Site?

"Cemetery Worthy of Being a World Heritage Site"

"Grief" by Evelyn De Morgan This page contain an extract from an article by Rob Brown and published in the Woking News & Mail on 30 June 2005 (registration fee now required to view the full online article). For further comments on the potential of Brookwood Cemetery to be a World Heritage Site, see the case summary of the Home Office Report.

"Grief" by Evelyn De Morgan

"Brookwood Cemetery holds the remains of almost as many people claimed by the Boxing Day tsunami.

"And for each of the 235,000 graves in western Europe's biggest cemetery, there is a story.

"Within this 400-acre burial ground are the remains of war heroes and visionaries, crash victims, revolutionaries, performers, police officers, the last of England's executed and an archetypal Victorian villain.

"John Clarke, founding chairman of the Brookwood Cemetery Society and author of three books on the site, believes Brookwood is worthy of recognition as an UNESCO world heritage site.

"He said: "The size, the scope, the fact that there used to be a railway serving it, the memorials, the fact also that it's a very embracing site, with sections from different communities from this country and from overseas, all add to the argument."

"He agreed that despite a recent report which said Brookwood was of "extreme importance", the cemetery is overlooked.

"Mr Clarke added: "A lot of my spare time is devoted to trying to change people's perceptions of the cemetery. There must be hundreds of people who notice Brookwood from the train or the road but very few take time out to actually visit it."