Astwood & St John's Cemeteries

We have two active cemeteries — Astwood Cemetery and St John's Cemetery. Our team spend a great deal of time maintaining and improving both sites, and we're always open to feedback and new ideas. Below is some background on each cemetery and the areas within them.

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A note on our current services

The cemetery grounds remain open as normal while the crematorium building is closed for refurbishment.

Astwood Cemetery

Astwood Cemetery opened in 1850. It covers 16.7 hectares and contains around 55,000 burial plots as well as cremated remains. Given its age, there are a number of memorials of historical and architectural interest, mostly in the older parts of the cemetery where the first burials took place.

One of Worcester's most famous sons, Sir Charles Hastings (1796–1866) — a founder member of the British Medical Association, knighted by Queen Victoria for his services to medicine — is buried here. The Charles Hastings Education Centre at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital is named after him.

Other notable burials

Henry Rowe

(1820 – 1907)

Local architect who designed St George’s RD Church, a Grade II* listed building and where Elgar was organist from 1885, as well as the Worcester Court House.

Alice Ottley

(1840-1912)

First headmistress of the Alice Ottley School.

Ted Arnold

(1876-1941)

Cricketer for Worcestershire County Cricket Club. Played between 1899 and 1913, scoring 15,853 runs and taking more than 1,000 wickets. Also played ten matches for England.

Private Jason Williams

(1986-2009)

Soldier from 2^nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment who was killed in Afghanistan retrieving the body of a fallen Afghan comrade. His mother was the first person in the region to receive the Elizabeth Medal.

St John's Cemetery

St John's Cemetery opened in 1893, with its first burial on 29 June. It covers 3.2 hectares and has approximately 9,000 burial plots as well as cremated remains. It occupies a gently sloping, square site next to the Worcester-to-Hereford railway line, which forms its southern boundary, with industry and homes on the remaining sides.

St John's burial ground was created after local people — mostly working-class and poor — objected to the cost of transporting their loved ones across the river to Astwood Cemetery. A record of the meeting appears in the Worcester Chronicle (21 June 1890).

Notable burials at St John's include the Reverend Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy — known locally as 'Woodbine Willie' (1883–1929) — remembered for comforting soldiers in the First World War through prayer and by offering Woodbine cigarettes. A published poet and an advocate of Christian socialism and pacifism, he chaired the Worcester Workers' Committee, championing workers' rights. When he died, it was reported that over 2,000 mourners lined the streets and threw Woodbine cigarettes at his coffin.