Ballast Hills Burial Ground: Rediscovery and Reimagining
An Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Curiosity Award project exploring a largely forgotten burial ground in Newcastle.
About the project
Ballast Hills Burial Ground in Newcastle contains the remains of more than 40,000 people buried between the mid-seventeenth century and 1853. The unconsecrated burial ground served many who were excluded from, or chose burial beyond, the Anglican parish system. This included Nonconformists and members of the working poor.
After closure, the site was re-landscaped and reused as public green space, which gradually erased its identity as a place of interment. The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Curiosity Award project examines Ballast Hills as a layered burial landscape. It reveals the people connected with it and the changing meanings of the site through time.
Research methods and field activities
The research combines archival work, non-invasive field investigation and community engagement.
Field activities include exposing and documenting reused gravestones, and carrying out geophysical and spatial surveys to better understand the surviving burial landscape.
Community involvement
Volunteers, descendants, students, and local history researchers contribute through:
- archive sessions
- field recording
- talks
- walks
- workshops
- creative activities
The project also helped establish the North East Funerary Heritage Group. This group connects researchers, heritage organisations, and community groups working on burial places across the region and places Ballast Hills within a wider context of funerary heritage research.
In 2026, this project was nominated for the Engaging for Cultural Benefit Award at the Newcastle University Engagement and Place Awards.
Find out more
- North East Funerary Heritage Group (NEFHG) Blog
- researcher profiles: Dr Myra Giesen and Dr Shane McCorristine
Acknowledgements
This project is funded by the AHRC Curiosity Award (AH/Z505833/1) and delivered through Newcastle University in collaboration with partners including:
- Newcastle City Council Planning
- Newcastle City Library
- North East Museums
- Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
- the Ouseburn Trust
Contributions have come from more than 150 volunteers and eight student interns.
The Curiosity Award builds on earlier development work supported by:
- Newcastle University’s Centre for Heritage (Ballast Hills Burial Ground: Life Register Website Proof-of-Concept, 2024),
- the Newcastle University Faculty of Humanities and Social Science Research Institutes Pioneer Award (Rediscovering Ballast Hills Burial Ground: Project Visioning, 2023)
- the Ouseburn Trust with pass-through funding from Newcastle City Council (Ballast Hills Burial Ground Ground-Penetrating Radar and Structured Light Scanning Pilot Survey, 2022)
Further support from the Catherine Cookson Foundation (Ballast Hills Explorer’s Guide, 2026) extends the work by supporting new interpretation and educational resources
Images credit: Thank you to John Hipkin for providing photos which we have used on the site.