Bolton Street Memorial Park

Bolton Street Memorial Park, formerly known as Bolton Street Cemetery, is the oldest cemetery in Wellington, New Zealand. Dating back to 1840, many notable people are buried here. Situated in the suburb of Thorndon, the Wellington City Council's memorial trail number five covers the Bolton Street Memorial Park and visits notable graves, points of interest, lookouts and buildings.HistoryThe park's history could probably be the history of those buried there; old pioneers are buried in the Victorian-type cemetery. Established as a cemetery in 1840 on the outskirts of the new town of Wellington, separate burial areas were designated for Anglicans, Jews and Roman Catholics. Many notable people of the town were buried there, including William Wakefield, Wellington's founder. It was closed for burials in 1892, except for the new burials of kins; this was due to inadequate space as the city grew.In 1960, the City Council's urban plan established a need for a motorway, a part of which would be routed through the cemetery. Seven years later, the City Council passed an act to build a motorway through the park. As a result, the cemetery was closed as a burial ground from March 1967 through 1971. The historic cemetery, bisected by the Wellington Urban Motorway, caused extensive controversy at the time. The new motorway opened in 1978, and in the same year, the Wellington City Council Parks renamed the cemetery as the Bolton Street Memorial Park. Though the Friends of Bolton Street protested against the shifting of the graves, they did not stop construction of the road but ensured that the cemetery got a heritage status and the park got a reserve nomenclature. In spite of protests, about 3,700 graves were exhumed and relocated, most of whom were re-interred in a large vault beneath the park's lawn. The relocated parts of the cemetery with head stones are linked through a foot bridge over the road. Of the 8,500 people reported buried in the park, only 1334 headstones (made of marble or local stones) were traced and 35 are made in wood.