From Grave Yards and Burial Grounds to Cemeteries

In the U.K. and in the U.S.A. until the beginning of the 19th Century the dead were buried in the Church or Chapel Grave Yard;

 or in a Church Crypt; 

or (for the poor, criminal or indigent) in "Potter's Field" Burial Ground in a unmarked space. (Potter's Fields still exist for those who die without kin, and without money. (I said the prayers at the internment of one such person in a Potter's field in Sarasota).

English villages might have a non-sectarian Grave Yard.  

In the U.S.A. African-Americans had to have their own Burial Grounds;  many of which were later  paved over in the interests of "development".  

As the U.K and the U.S.A. moved from  agrarian to urban communities it became clear that the old Grave Yard/ Burial Ground system was inadequate 

Thus emerged the modern Cemetery.

First and foremost was the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Watertown/Cambridge, Massachusetts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Auburn_Cemetery

To this day it is a beautiful place; a nature trail as much as a Cemetery; a breathing space in a conurbation.  

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In my beloved native City of Bristol, England there is the wonderful Arnos Vale Cemetery.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnos_Vale_Cemetery

I remember it as an overgrown and neglected place: even though it was the final resting place of some of Bristol's "great and the good".

Privately owned  there was more than half a chance that it would be sold to to developers as a site for housing or offices.

The good sense of Bristolians kicked in, as a result of which Arnos Vale is being restored to its beauty and glory; and re-purposed as an urban oasis: 45 acres of natural and human created beauty.

Who could ask for anything more?

As it happens Arnos Vale is also the burial place of two of the heroes of the Plymouth Brethren (the denomination in which I was raised)  Anthony Norris Groves and George Muller.  Look them up if you will.

Groves and Muller  have  remains  which are interred in the beautiful place which is Arnos Vale Cemetery.

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A bit more about Arnos Vale.  A cemetery where some people choose to hold their wedding ceremonies!

https://arnosvale.org.uk