Cemeteries are a space of cultural interest where the relationship between the living and the dead is reflected in the different stages of development of a culture and a territory. In the case of the British Cemetery of Huelva, it also reinforces the historical memory of the English presence in the province and its development and influence on Huelva’s society.
In 2010, the European Cemetery Route was created, which consists of the creation of itineraries of these spaces with the aim of raising awareness of European funerary heritage. This Route includes locations in Andalusia where the Huelva Cemetery could be included.
The British Cemetery of Huelva has 3675 square metres of rectangular shape and dimensions.
25 x 147 m. It has independent access to its facilities from the parking area to the north of the main entrance to the cemetery. Its boundaries are as follows: to the north, south and east, the premises of the Soledad Cemetery; to the west, the parking area next to the road or “Camino del Cementerio”.
With the mining development that the province of Huelva experienced at the end of the 19th century at the hands of foreign investment, which had great economic and political influence, the need for the Protestant funerary typology arose. In 1868 the English vice-consul Eduardo Díaz asked the Huelva City Council for authorization to build it in the vicinity of the Catholic cemetery of San Sebastián. This request lasted until the end of the nineteenth century, when the construction of a sector for the Evangelical Church was authorized in the San Sebastian cemetery, which was zoned in three parts: Catholic, Dissident and English Cemetery.
The British Cemetery has suffered from lack of maintenance since its commissioning, but attention has been paid since 2013 and different actions of conditioning and historical research have been carried out in the field, in coordination with Rocío Rodríguez Pujazón, municipal archaeologist:
– In 2015, through the “Plan de Empleo 30+”, it was possible to undertake in the southern half of the enclosure a generalized cleaning, as well as the documentation of the state of the burials.
– In May 2016, the Historical Heritage Volunteer Day, was a punctual action of cleaning part of the tombs and repairing the walls.
– In the summer of 2016, the municipal subcontractor “Escudero Sánchez S.L.” achieved the clearing of the entire northern half, which had remained untreated, and the reading of funerary elements was completed. Subsequently, maintenance and herbicide application tasks have been carried out on a regular basis.
– Summer 2018, through PEACA personnel, it has been possible to give a review of vegetation removal to all graves, including the area under the fallen tree, which has allowed to document some burials that had not been accessible until now.
The British Cemetery is located next to Soledad Cemetery..
21005 Huelva
