Reading's Old or East Cemetery: the geological landscape of an urban burial ground in modern central Berkshire

The landscape of the private Old or East Cemetery in Reading was laid out as a garden, a plan popular in the early nineteenth century. Interments began in 1843 and continued after extension of the Cemetery in about 1900; in 1927 the rate of burials peaked in excess of 500 per decade. Although the town continued to grow, the interment rate subsequently plunged, in the face of competition from a new, municipal burial ground (Henley Road) in the eastern town. Burials continued at the Old Cemetery, but largely at established family plots. The Old Cemetery is now semi-wild, but in excess of 5,600 graves with accessible monuments are still to be found. The geological landscape presented by these memorials resembles that of other burial grounds in south-central and south-east England: chiefly Italian marble, Pennant sandstone, Scottish and Cornubian (Cornwall-Devon) granites, Portland limestone, and gabbro. There are minor applications of other granites, Lower Carboniferous Limestone, York stone, Banbury Ironstone, Bathstone, slate and gneiss, and some artificial stone (especially terrazzo) and cast iron. Pennant sandstone was the early stone of choice. Marble rose to great and sustained popularity from the late nineteenth century. Scottish granites had a modest but steady appeal, in contrast to granites from south-west England, which rose to prominence only in the early twentieth century. Gabbros from far overseas appeared mainly late, stimulated by the growth of cheap freight-container transport. The geological evolution of the landscape of the Old Cemetery therefore broadly matches that recorded in other burial grounds of the region, such as Oxford and west London.