However, there was a feeling that adequate burial facilities should be among the great public health improvements being made by local government, so during the 1840s several cities applied for Acts of Parliament to enable them to set up cemeteries with rate payers' money. From the 1850s a series of Acts made the process cheaper and easier, and the great age of the municipal cemetery began. The typical Victorian cemetery demonstrates the attitudes of the time. Religion was all important, and many of these places were divided into Anglican and dissenters' sections. The social status of those buried is reflected in the grandeur of their memorials and in the proud boasts of their epitaphs.
Victorian monuments are a great resource for information.
Epitaphs 100 years ago were prolific and the highest standards of letter carving were reached. Victorians were keen to take their status into the next life through the grandeur of their monuments, and the words inscribed on them. But the epitaphs of women remind us of the harsh realities of Victorian life.