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There were two cemeteries on the West Bank. The first was situated on the beachfront, between the road and the sea, approximately below the present West Bank High School. It is not clear when it was created but probably served initially as a burial site for deceased soldiers from Fort Glamorgan and so may have been initiated about 1848.
The site was not particularly advantageous to the small town. Butchers slaughtered their animals on the rocks close by, ostensibly so that the waves at high tide could wash the rocks clean although it is quite clear that they were not particularly fussy about keeping to the letter of the law. As a result, the area stank dreadfully. Indeed, there were numerous complaints about the dreadful smell which permeated into St Peter's Church during services on Sundays.
Because the cemetery was so close to the shambles, however, it also proved a convenient place for the butchers to pen the animals prior to slaughtering. Any people visiting deceased relatives, therefore, had to contend with animals of all descriptions grazing amongst the tombs.
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A new cemetery was created further from the town during the 1860s. The spot however was not well chosen because it lay immediately above Baker's Wells which was the main source of water for the village on the West Bank. There was therefore major fear that dreadful diseases like typhoid and cholera could break out as a result of liquid seeping from the decaying bodies finding its way into the drinking water.
Although much debate centred on the idea of removing this second cemetry, the idea of creating yet another cemetery proved to be abhorrent. As it was, people were particularly concerned that the dead were already being separated, and somehow the idea that relatives might not find their way to being reunited when the resurrection of the dead took place cancelled the idea of creating a third cemetery and further separating the dead.
The original cemetery was removed during the 1960s when the South African Railways decided to create a shunting line along the beachfront. Since the cemetery was in the way, it had to go.
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