St. Sever, Cemetery, Rouen

[Stephen Callaghan]

Some pictures of St. Sever, Cemetery, Rouen from my trip there several weeks ago.

St. Sever Cemetery and the extension is the resting place of 11500 soldiers of the Great War.

[Vista52]

Thank you for the photo's.......nicely done.

[Havrincourt]

Thank you Messines17 great views

Andy

[stoj22]

Smashing pictures and not a cloud in the sky...........!!

Steve.

[ceebee]

Nice photos, Messines.

Any reason why the headstones in the foreground of photo 2 are butting together?

[Stephen Callaghan]

Nice photos, Messines.

Any reason why the headstones in the foreground of photo 2 are butting together?

I guess is that is was for space reasons, that picture was taken in the extension, so I guess they needed the space.

Thanks,

Stephen

[ceebee]

Stephen

Yes, that would explain it.

Thanks

Chris

[bruce]

I can't speak for St. Sever, but i seem to think that elsewhere, two headstones close together represents that the two men died on the same day, and rather than dig two graves, a larger one was dug and the men placed in that. Hence in some places seeing five or six abutting each other, as at Essex Farm, for instance.

Bruce

[JPAE]

Thank you for putting these views on for us all to see. I always assumed that Tyne Cot was way and above the greatest in terms of numbers, but St. Severs would appear to be almost as vast.

Phil.

[Andrew Hesketh]

Thanks for these photo's, as this is a cemetery I've not yet visited but is on my 'to do' list.

[Michelle Young]

Although Tyne Cot is the biggest I always find cemeteries like St Sever, Lijssenthoek and Etaples always seem bigger to me as they are on flat ground. Lovely photos, it is a fascinating cemetery but a swine to find.............(At least I found it so!)

Michelle

[Mary Kemp]

Thank you for the photos. I live quite close to Rouen and still haven't found the cemetery!! I must try harder.

Mary

[ceebee]

Bruce, that might be another reason.

Incidently, looking at the site plan provided by the CWGC, the graves in St.Sever Cemetery, as distinct from those in St. Sever Cemetery Extension, are predominantly laid out in arcs. Plots A, B and C are labelled officer's plots. I though it was the general practice not to segregate officers from the rank and file. Could this have occurred at St. Sever because of the ordered nature in which burials occurred, noting that the site was not a battlefield cemetery? St. Sever served as the main burial site for those who died in the neighbouring military hospitals at Rouen.

Chris

[Michelle Young]

You quite often find officers buries separately in hospital cemeteries: there is a very long row of graves at the foot of the steps in Etaples which is an officers plot. In other cemeteries where regimental plots have been incorporated into a cemetery the officers are frequently buried together too, the Somerset Light Infantry officers buried in Ploegstreet Wood springs to mind here..

Michelle

[ceebee]

Michelle, thanks for that information and setting me straight on the issue. I thought of Etaples too, but couldn't see any distinctions on the CWGC on-line map because it doesn't go to the same detail as St Severs.

Cheers

Chris