Ministry of Health and predecessors and successors: Burial Grounds, Registered Files

HLG 45

1854-1973

General and local authority files relating to burials and cremations, burial ground extensions and closing orders, fees and regulations, loan consents, reports of burial ground inspectors, etc. Most of the documents are files of the Ministry of Health, but there are also some of the Home Office and the Local Government Board.

Other files prior to 1919 will be found in HLG 1

Public Record(s)

English

• General Board of Health, 1848-1858
• Home Office, 1782-1782
• Local Government Board, 1871-1919
• Ministry of Health, 1919-1968
• Ministry of Housing and Local Government, 1951-1970

1656 file(s)

Subject to 30 year closure

Topics

Local Government

In 1900 many of the functions of the Home Office relating to the administration of burial grounds and approval of interment fees under general acts were transferred to the board by statute. The home secretary retained responsibility for the approval of interment fees under local acts. Treasury approval was necessary for loans, mortgages or sales in connection with burial grounds, but this power was transferred to the board in respect of municipal corporations in 1888 and other authorities in 1906. The board did not appoint a Burial Grounds Inspectorate as the home secretary had done, the work being entrusted to the Engineering Inspectorate.

The Burial Acts were originally the concern of the Secretary of State (Home Office): The Burial Acts of 1852 and 1853 provided for the establishment by Vestries of Burial Boards to make further provision for the burial of the dead; the Burial Act, 1900 consolidated many of the complex statutes on the administration of burial places and transferred the power of the Secretary of State to the Local Government Board.

Consents to loans and other transactions under the Burial Acts were originally given by the Treasury, but under the Local Authority (Treasury Powers) Act 1906 such consents were thereafter granted by the Local Government Board.