Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester, covering some thirty acres, is not just a tranquil resting place for the dead. Here you will find over 150 years of Leicesters' history written on stone. Whether it is one's own ancestors or some well-known politician, captain of industry, reformer, philanthropist, musician or artist, each memorial and each grave has a story.

The memorials themselves represent style of architecture and fashion over 150 years and show the skill of the stonemasons and sculptors who created them. There is a wealth of mature trees, mosses, lichen, wild flowers, insects, birds and mammals in this listed conservation area which lies so close to the heart of Leicester. The Leicester City Council is working to conserve and maintain the cemetery not just as a sterile monument to the past but as a living resource for the education and enjoyment of the people of Leicester.

The "Friends Of Welford Road Cemetery" are working with the City Council and other interested groups towards this end. They are also working to record the monumental inscriptions and create a computerised database for a web-site.

You can now also access burials records at the Visitors Centre at the Cemetery. Staff are on hand to help you search for your ancestors, locate the graves for you, and even take you to the plot. Using the Burial Index CD-Rom created by the Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society, they can quickly access the information for you and point you in the right direction. (You can also purchase a copy of the CD Rom, containing details of over 200,000 burials from the Centre.