Architect's Memorial

Six of Undercliffe Cemetery's memorials have Listed Building status and one of those is to William Mawson. He was an architect of the Mawson and Lockwood practice which designed Bradford's Town Hall, Wool Exchange, the Saltaire Mill and village and Feversham Street School, to name but a few. Mawson died on April 25, 1889 aged 6. His listed monument is a granite obelisk on a pedestal to one side of the cemetery's main terrace.

The cemetery stands on a hillside overlooking the City of Bradford and Wikipedia records it as containing some very impressive Victorian funerary monuments in a variety of styles. It is a notable example of a Victorian cemetery where a number of rich and prominent local residents have been buried, notably mill owners and former mayors. Undercliffe Cemetery has been grade II* listed by English Heritage in their register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historical Interest in England.

Fiddler Joss found Salvation!

Joshua Poole was an evangelist. The Manx Quarterly recorded his death, in 1908, thus:

The death took place on Sunday, May 17th, in Bradford, at the age of 82, of Mr Joshua Poole, an evangelist and temperance worker, who for many years was well known as " Fiddler Joss," Mr Poole's health broke down about twenty years ago, and in retirement he took up his residence at Halifax. Though little more than a name to the present generation, to those who had known him from the time of his first mission fifty years ago, " Fiddler Joss " was regarded as one of the most remarkable of modern evangelists. Born at Skipton, where his father followed the occupation of a saddler, he was a Sunday-school teacher in his youth, but, being of a roving disposition, he broke away from the family traditions, and in Bradford became a pothouse fiddler, a gambler, and a heavy drinker. In the course of time he became as familiar with the inside of a prison as he was of the public house. When at length his wife swore that her life was in danger from his oonstant violence, he was sent to prison for six months, not being able to offer the required security to be of good behaviour. In Wakefield Gaol he resolved, through the influence of the prison warder, to reform. From that time he became a pledged teetotaller, abandoned his loose life, and applied himself to steady industry. It was not long before he began to speak as an evangelist, and his fame spread far and wide. Indeed as a preacher to the masses, "Fiddler Joss" in his day had few equals. Along with his wife, Mary Poole, he conducted missions in all parts of the United Kingdom, and at one time was even induced to carry on a mission in France.

Death of Four Brothers

This grave marks a very sad event. It states: Here lie the bodies of four brothers. They were the children of Station Master Robert Smith of the Midland Railway Company and his wife, Harriet. All contracted Scarlet Fever in 1880 and were dead within a week. They were:

Horace Richard

9 years

Rowland

7 years

Godfrey

4 years

Ralph

1 year 7 months

The Barlow Memorial

The very striking Barlow Memorial can be found in Bradford's Undercliffe Cemetery. It depicts a reclining mother holding a small baby in her arms. It commemorates Anne Wagstaff Barlow (1834-1867) and her daughter Sarah Elizabeth who survived just a few weeks after her birth in 1859. Some say it illustrates the perils of childbirth in Victorian times.