The purpose of the Dead-House was to place within unclaimed and unidentified bodies from perhaps a
fatality in the street or a drowning. This allowed the body to be examined for
any forms of identification so that any next of kin could be informed in due
course.
The old house was a simple wooden shed, barely eleven feet in
length by seven in breadth. It was built upon the south wall of the burying
ground, about an equal distant from each end of the walk which runs along the
South side of the Howff. This wall is only nine and a half feet high, and from
this the roof sloped forwards a distance of seven and a half feet, making the
height of the house in front only seven feet. By 1865 the shed was in a poor
condition and it was decided a new one should be built. An interesting side
story is at this time the old cemetery wall was being pulled down so that the
Advertiser buildings in Bank Street could be erected on the footprint of it. The
old Dead-House was left in situ and it has been documented that the side was opened
up because of this. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that some kind of
covering was put in place while this reconstruction was going on. More detailing
of this will be covered in a further webpage. The new building
was constructed and finished on or around the 7th July 1865 and is described as
follows:- It stands a few feet west of where the old house stood.
It is brick built, two thicknesses, and stands independent of the wall. Inside
it is very roomy, giving a floor-head of fourteen by ten. The walls, plastered
and whitewashed, are nine feet high, and the ceiling rises another three feet.
It is well lighted and ventilated. At first it was proposed to put a large
window in front at the north side, but it was afterwards thought that this would
be the means of collecting a crowd, and therefore it has been lighted from the
roof, and the north side filled with a dumb window, which relieves the dead-wall
like appearance it would have otherwise presented.
Mr George O'Farrell made the proposal and hastened the completion of the new
building.
Keys for the Dead-House and Howff gates were kept with the keeper and an
additional set at the Police Office. Part of the above text ©
THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. & © 2014
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