The launch of the Cemetery Audio Tour 9th April 2011
The Chapel at Milton Road Cemetery re-opened in November 2010 following major restoration by Weston-super-Mare Town Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund. As part of the project, the Friends of Milton Road Cemetery have undertaken painstaking research, published books and leaflets and created a state-of-the-art audio tour.
The electronic tour takes visitors through 80 fascinating aspects of the Cemetery, which was created in 1856 by Bath architect Charles Davis as a parkland repository of the dead. The tour guides visitors to graves of famous people, specimen trees and varieties of wildlife.
This audio tour was launched on Saturday 9 April at 1.30pm. For those with their own i-Phone, GPS and appropriate software the tour will soon be made available as a free download from the Town Council's website.
The Cemetery has a fascinating past. One of the best known 'residents' is Weston artist Alfred Leete who produced the iconic "Your Country Needs You" First World War recruitment poster.
Hans Fowler Price, Weston's most prolific architect is buried there, as is Earl Alexander of Hillsborough, First Lord of the Admiralty in Churchill's wartime Cabinet.
Even the cemetery trees have a story to tell. The Lucombe Oak was named after a mid-18th century Mr Lucombe, a man so enamoured with its beauty that he felled an original specimen and stored it under his bed so that his eventual coffin might be hewn from the trunk. Forward planning!
The high-tec tour also tells the history of the former Ashcombe House, home of the Capell family and later maternity hospital on a site now occupied by modern housing in The Drive.
The Cemetery Chapel continues to be open for public viewing between 1.30pm and 3.30pm each second Saturday of the month.
Further information about the Cemetery and the tour is available from Zoe Clements at Weston-super-Mare Town Council on T: 01934 632575
Added on: Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:24:00 GMT by: Weston Town Council