Bath Abbey

From time immemorial burials have occurred in the crypt of Bath Abbey. Prior to 1844 the occurrence of an entry in the burial register indicates that the burial took place in the Abbey. There were only between 20 and 50 burials per year in the period 1600-1844. The entries in the register are mainly (90%) for burial within the Abbey. However some entries are explicit in stating that the burial was elsewhere: the churchyard (7.8%), the skullhouse (1.5%) and a small number for St John’s Chapel. No headstones remain in the churchyard and the location of the skullhouse is unknown. There are however many floor and walls memorials. The floor memorials were documented in 1872 and the wall memorials in 1914. The floor memorials have been relaid (the ‘Footprint project’) in order to stabilise the abbey’s floor and introduce underfloor heating, making use of the nearby hot water at the Roman baths.

Bath Record Office’s Bath Burial Index (https://www.batharchives.co.uk/) has online documentation produced by Phil Bendall for Bath Abbey for the period 1600-1845 based on the burial registers and the documentation of the memorials within the Abbey.

Note that from 1784 there were also burials at the Abbey & St James Poorhouse and from 1844 the parish made use of Bath Abbey Cemetery located in Widcombe, burials in the Abbey itself ceasing in 1845.