For those who believe in the Second Coming, when all are raised from the dead to go to heaven, the thoughts of that day fill me with fear and it should those who at the time may be driving along the A34 in Newcastle with thousands of bodies breaking through the road surface.
The Spittals Workhouse was opened in 1832 but until 1869 burials for paupers took place in the churchyard of the parish church in Stoke – over one mile away.
Because the churchyard was becoming full it became necessary to create a new burial ground for workhouse paupers which was opened on land opposite to the entrance of the workhouse at London Road (then a single carriageway).
This burial ground was subsequently enlarged in 1900 but no records have survived to indicate the number of burials there over a period of 50 years locally, except those held by the General Registrar and these are not available for public examination.
However, annual returns at the Local Government Board show that over a period of just seven years the number of those who died was 5,766.
Nationally, for the period 1869-1909, the number of deaths recorded in institutions totalled 26,648.
Those resident in workhouses and in addition those receiving poor law relief would also be buried in workhouse graveyard.
The 19th century was littered with major outbreaks of infectious disease such as small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough and others, all mass killers of the day.
A major outbreak of measles occurred in the workhouse school in July 1886 when 33 cases were reported.
In 1891 an epidemic of zymotic diseases hit the Potteries resulting in nine hundred and thirty-five deaths (29.3 percent per 1000) of the population of Stoke-upon-Trent alone.
A further epidemic of scarlet fever followed in 1895 and all workhouse visiting was
suspended in an attempt to control the disease. The following year, fifteen cases of measles were found in the workhouse and again visiting was suspended.
In 1897 a serious epidemic of chicken-pox was found in the female children’s ward followed by a third outbreak of the killer scarlet-fever.
By the late 19th century local churchyards were becoming full, with little or no space to bury paupers except in workhouse cemeteries.
The area of the Stoke-upon-Trent Poor Law Union included the districts of Hanley, Shelton, Stoke, Fenton and Longton.
In 1967/8 there were extensive road works between the workhouse and the burial ground when the single carriage way was made into a dual-carriage way.
This involved the acquisition of part of the pauper burial ground on the other side of the road.
Two trenches were dug for GPO. cables and for sewers. Both trench excavations exposed the remains of paupers the entire length of the trench in line within the limits of the burial ground stacked several deep.
There was no evidence of shrouds or coffins. The numbers and method of stacking bodies would suggest that a grave would be dug as and when there were a number of bodies to bury in one grave, who knows how many at a time? Realistically, paupers would be made to dig the graves of those paupers who had died, wondering if they were to be next.
However, such a style of burial and in such numbers could only be associated with a considerable number of deaths within a short period - epidemics.
Those remains excavated from the two trenches during 1967/8 were removed and re-interred into Newcastle Borough Cemetery.
The rest of the burials remain in both of the remaining section of the original burial ground and under the west lane of the duel-carriageway, probably numbering in excess of 10,000.
Upon initial inquiries with Stoke-on-Trent local authority they knew nothing of this burial ground.
I just hope that I am not around to experience that Second Coming of the Lord.’