From the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales 1870-72 by John Marius Wilson: BOX, a village and a parish in Chippenham district, Wilts. The village stands on the Box river, adjacent to the Great Western railway, 5 miles NW by W of Bath; and has a station on the railway, and a post office‡ under Chippenham. It contains numerous old houses, and an ancient market cross; and is supposed to occupy the site of Roman baths. Numerous Roman relics have been found in the vicinity; and a Roman pavement and other remains are in the parsonage garden.—The parish includes also the hamlets of Wadswick, Box-Quarries, Ashley, Kingsdown, Wadswell, and Middle-Hill, and the manor of Hazelbury. Acres, 4,217. Real property, £10,690; of which £1,425 are in quarries. Pop., 2,051. Houses, 403.
(In fact Box is north-east of Bath!)
A vestry meeting on 14 Jan 1858 in the church (but then adjourning to the Bear Inn) considered the condition of the churchyard and the widespread suspicion that some recent deaths at Box House had been caused by a ‘bad smell’ from it. The government inspector wrote that it couldn’t be proved that the churchyard was the cause. Nonetheless the meeting determined to explore setting up a new cemetery, the churchyard would be closed, the Ditteridge churchyard would be used until arrangements could be made and a Burial Board would be established (Bath Chronicle Thu 21 Jan 1858 p9). The consecration of the cemetery by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol was reported in the Bath Chronicle of Thu 16 Dec 1858 p6. This includes ‘As a preliminary step, a Burial Board, embracing some of the leading inhabitants, was created, and, under the auspices of this body, the cemetery has been formed. It stands in an eligible spot, a short distance from the village, and adjoins the turnpike road, and, being slightly elevated, commands an agreeable prospect of the surrounding country. The land for it was generously given Mr. North[ey], the lord of the manor, and comprises about two acres (being an acre to one-thousand of the population), a portion of which has been set apart for the use of Dissenters. The mortuary chapel, erected from designs prepared by Messrs. Poulting and Woodman, architects, is a very beautiful structure in the early decorated style. It has two large windows, one facing the east, the tracery of which is very chaste, and two small windows on each of the other sides. The light being admitted through stained glass gives a subdued and appropriate tone to the interior.’ Management of the cemetery was taken over by Box Parish Council in 1896 - when parish councils were introduced - and the site subsequent enlarged (The Wiltshire Times of Sat 28 Sep 1940 p8.) The Chapel, Lodge and Entrance Gates are grade II listed.
The Anglican burial register 1842- has for an entry on 17 Dec 1858 ‘first burial in the cemetery’. This implies that, for a time. some burials were recorded both in the Anglican and Cemetery registers.
The original part of the cemetery has its plots given a number. Although there are runs of sequential numbers in some parts, there is no a simple section, row, plot scheme. The new part of the cemetery has plot letters and numbers in the form (group, row, plot). The first letter designates a group of 7 rows, the second letter (A-G) the row, and the number (1-22) the plot within a row with 1 being on the western side. The separation of Anglicans from non-Anglican, as occurs elsewhere, is not evident here..
