Northwood Cemetery

During 2017 a project was carried out at Northwood Cemetery to restore the two chapels and a selection of the memorials that belonged to local well known figures. The project was undertaken by the Isle of Wight Council and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund in conjuntion with Friends of Northwood Cemetery (FONS).

FONS produced a list of memorials in need of attention and after several meetings and searches around the cemetery all the memorials were identified and recorded for refurbishment.

The first memorial on the list was to Thomas Cribb who was the first person to be intered in the cemetery. This was a simple Portland headstone that required releveling and cleaning.

Many of the memorials were a lot larger and required extensive refurbishment. The Cust memorial for example had been badly damaged after a tree fell on it during a storm. The Colville memorial had a large tree growing in the centre that had dislodged the whole memorial. Many others had subsided or fallen over and had been partially buried.

The War Memorial was also in need of cleaning, stone repairs, the inscription repainted and the kerbed section in front returfed.

The restoration was at times very challenging due to the sizes and weights of some of the stones but the final results were very pleasing. Have a look at the before and after photos and I'm sure you will agree.

New granite plot markers were made to denote all the sections of the cemetery.

We also supplied new stone dressings to GJ Banks for the restoration of the chapels which included window surrounds, string and plinth stones, new steps and apex crosses.

FONS are still working very hard in the cemetery and doing a great job.