Exeter Dissenters Graveyard open day

The Dissenters Graveyard will be open to visitors between 11am and 4pm on Saturday 8th July.

Visitors can view the near-completely restored Graveyard, now dignified with gates and railings; inspect transcribed copies of many of the grave inscriptions and will be able to read short biographies of some of those buried there. 

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. We have repaired, rebuilt and re-bonded the broken fragments of some of the nearly 100 monuments on the site. Boundary walls have been repaired and wrought iron gates & railings installed. The path has been made wheelchair-friendly. As much of the work as possible has been done by volunteers, with appropriate training. 

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

It has a website: www.edgt.org.uk and is also on Facebook and Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/exeterdgt and Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExeterDGT