Exeter Dissenters Graveyard open days

The Dissenters Graveyard in Exeter will be open to visitors next weekend

Between 11am and 4pm on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th September vistiors will be abel to see work in progress to reverse the ravages of time and vandalism and what more needs to be done, view a collapsed underground vault and the entrance to an intact underground vault, inspect transcribed copies of many of the grave inscriptions and read short biographies of some of those buried there.

Theatrical performance tours on the theme of Dissent in Exeter will terminate at the graveyard at approximately 12 noon and again at 3pm on Saturday 12th. These are sponsored by Exeter Dissenters Graveyard Trust and devised and arranged by Exeter Cathedral Education. (Ring 01392 285983 to book for the complete tour which starts outside the Cathedral at 11am and again at 2pm).

The Dissenters Graveyard is a significant physical remnant of the nonconformist tradition in Exeter.

The  Dissenter community was an important part of the city's commercial, religious and political life, particularly during the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. At one time Dissenters made up some 40% of the Protestant population of England. The Graveyard was used for burials between 1748 and 1854.

At least 1,300 people are buried at this site on the corner of Magdalen Street and Bull Meadow Road. The Exeter Dissenters Graveyard Trust is repairing, rebuilding and re-bonding the broken fragments of some of the nearly 100 monuments on the site and repairing and repointing boundary walls. New wrought iron gates and railings will be installed. As much of the work as possible is being done by volunteers, with appropriate training.

Exeter Dissenters Graveyard Trust (EDGT) was set up in 2013 specifically to rescue it from ruinous development.

For more information visit www.edgt.org.uk

Exeter DGT can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/exeterdgt and on Twitter @ExeterDGT