Volunteers hope to restore secret graveyard
With gravestones and crucifixes half-obscured by ivy, and overgrown bushes leaving the area constantly in darkness, this seems like an area the city forgot about long ago.
While Cardiff has seen huge expansion over the past century, the only thing growing here has been weeds obscuring the burial sites of some of the area’s most prominent residents from 150 years ago.
Mystery surrounds why the old Victorian-era burial ground behind Llandaff Cathedral was abandoned, with one theory being that records were lost after the city was bombed during World War Two.
A community group is now determined to reclaim it, and discover what secrets it hides about a period when Cardiff was experiencing huge growth as a coal-exporting town.
“At some point between the burial ground being shut in 1922 and after the Second World War, the main records disappeared,” said cathedral archivist Dr Nicholas Lambert.
“We can point the finger at the bombing of the cathedral, it’s quite possible that records were lost at that time or after the war.”
On 2 January 1941, the German Luftwaffe dropped 100 bombs on Cardiff, killing 153 people and partially-destroying the cathedral.
This is one explanation why work stopped on maintaining what was the cathedral’s main graveyard between 1860 and 1922.
There are a huge range of people buried there, from the workers at the paper mills in Ely and those who worked in trades around Canton.
Prominent local families such as the Insoles, who were coal mine owners and the Radcliffes, who were ship owners, are also buried in the graveyard.
There are also sad tales behind the headstones, such as one family who lost three children, all under the age of two, within about 18 months.
“Some of the graves are quite exquisite in terms of their detailing but of course all currently lost to us at the moment in the vegetation,” Dr Lambert added.
Many of the headstones in the graveyard are obscured by undergrowth
The graveyard is behind Llandaff Cathedral and sits between the cathedral grounds and Llandaff Cemetery
“I feel almost embarrassed because the cemetery at the side of the cathedral is very well tended,” said volunteer Judith Thompson.
“But this one obviously has been let go and it’s quite embarrassing that you can find a name on a record.
“But you know where the grave is roughly but you can’t actually see it, you can’t even see the headstones of most of them any more.”
The Victorian graveyard sits between Llandaff cathedral and the River Taff
Mrs Thompson has helped many people find graves of their relatives in the burial ground.
But many are lost to time, until the vegetation can be cut back, including some of her own ancestors.
These include Sir Charles Melhuish who was lord mayor of Cardiff in 1931.
But his grave is currently in the middle of an overgrown area.
“My cousin and I did try to keep a pathway cut to it for quite a while, but as the rest of the cemetery became so overgrown, that became more and more difficult, so we’ve had to let it go now,” she said.
Judith Thompson
Sir Charles Melhuish, the former lord mayor of Cardiff, is buried at the site, but his grave is currently inaccessible
Dr Lambert is working with other volunteers at the cathedral to start a community group to maintain and care for the land.
“What we’d like is perhaps three or four times a year, for people to come together for a day to bring various gardening tools to keep things as trim as possible,” he said.
“We can recognise then the importance of this space and also keep it as a green space for people to access as well.”
Many of the graves are inaccessible due to the overgrown vegetation
The pair are hoping to get people together to tackle the overgrowth in early 2026.
“It would be so nice if we could make this a place where people could come, they could find their family graves,” said Mrs Thompson.
“It would be so lovely if we could actually restore it here, so that people could walk around and could read [the engravings on the graves].
“Some of the memorials are beautifully inspired.
“They’re beautiful statues, wonderful headstones. It’s such a shame that we can’t access them now.”
With additional reporting from Tink Llewellyn.
As time goes on, the graveyard becomes even more inaccessible
