The photo above shows the two Chapels in the Cemetery, the photo was taken looking towards the entrance to the Cemetery beyond the large tree in the centre. The Chapel on the left is the Dissenters Chapel, the one on the right for St Andrews Church.

In 1854 a Committee was formed for the purpose of providing a new Burial Ground, as St Andrews Churchyard had become over crowded. The Burial Board had considerable trouble in choosing a suitable site as the soil on one side of the Town being to damp and on the other side being too clunchy, one site was too far from the Town, and another proposed piece was adjoining the Churchyard. In 1855 a Burial Board meeting was held, and the site for the new Cemetery was agreed, on the road from Soham to Fordham. The land, 3 acres of very high and dry soil, belonged to a Mr Staples. Several designs for the Lodge and 2 Chapels were put before the meeting, the one accepted was from a Mr Wheeler of Grays Inn Terrace, London. The overall design of the Cemetery was thus: There would be one Chapel for Dissenters and one for Churchmen, they would both be of the same style and the ground would also be divided between them both. The Cemetery opened in June 1856 and is still used today.

The photo on the left shows the only entrance to the Cemetery from the Fordham Road in Soham. As you enter you will be in the oldest part of the Cemetery, on the right hand side as you enter is the Dissenter burials and on the left are the Anglican burials. The Cemetery Lodge situated on the left of the entrance shown on the right hand photo, was built in 1855 in the Gothic Style and by 1861 was home to the Curator, initially being the home of the Sexton. The Lodge was sold by the 1990's now being a private residence.

The Cemetery contains two facing Chapels, they were both built in1855/6, built of black flint dressed in ashlar, both similar in design. The two photos on the left show the Anglican Chapel, which is still in use today, and stands on the Southern side of the driveway. The two photos on the right show the Dissenter Chapel,   unfortunately by 1965 no clergy could be found who would officiate in the cold damp Dissenter Chapel. It had stood boarded up until around the 1990's, being used to store the Cemetery tractor & other equipment, when it was decided that it should be demolished, fortunately a group of Towns men came together & fought to save it, a Charitable Trust was set up to buy the building , now being fully restored & open to the public to view. 

The photo on the left shows the interior of the fully restored Dissenter Chapel, which contains a visitors book if you wish to pay it a visit, also there is an information board about the Chapel Trust & how it came about, with a further plaque on the wall naming the Trustees involved in saving the Chapel from being demolished, one of those being the present Lord of the Manor. The Chapel also contains two small side rooms, not shown in the photo, as does the Anglican one. I can't imagine why they should want to demolish such a beautiful old building as this, as I understand it they saved the building from being demolished within days of its destruction, good on them, the photo on the right shows its roof beams.

Below are photos of the grouns of the Cemetery, the original Cemetery when first built contained eight sections or grave plots, four on the left for the Church of England, and four on the right for the Dissenters, some years later the Cemetery was extended southwards, with a further six sections being added for burials, and in more recent times, extended again southwards to what we refer to as the new part of the cemetery, photos of the newer part, we have not included in this page for obvious reasons.
We hold all details of those resident in the Cemetery, including where they are buried, with the relevant section ie plot letter and grave number etc. if you are planning to visit the Cemetery to locate your ancestors, we would be only to glad to help you, in providing their grave details, saving you time. As many of those resident did not have grave stones / memorials to mark their resting places, some just had a simple wooden cross as a grave marker, now long gone, and other poorer residents nothing at all, many stones have been removed over the years for different reasons, some have been removed so as the area can be reused for newer burials, but many of the earlier stones at the front of the cemetery still exist. We have drawn up a rough sketch of the lay out of the cemetery, giving the location of the relevant sections, click HERE for this plan.
We have over the past few years been taking down the inscriptions of those stones left, this is an on going project, we hope to complete in the near future, as some of the stones are wearing  quite fast.

On the left shows section E that is to your right as you enter the Cemetery and is directly before the Dissenter Chapel and contains the earliest Dissenter burials in the Cemetery.
On the right shows section A that is to your left as you enter the Cemetery and is also directly before the Anglican Chapel, which is visible in the background. This contains the earliest Anglican burials in the Cemetery.

On the left shows section F that is situated directly behind or after the Dissenter Chapel and beyond this is sections G & H.
On the right shows section B also directly behind or after the Anglican Chapel.



On the left shows section G, very sparse, and on the  right shows section C, again not many stones.




On the left shows section H, and on the right section D, again not many stones left standing.

On the left shows section J, and on the right is section K.





On the left shows section L, and on the right shows section M





On the left shows section N, and on the right shows section P.