Arnos Vale: The influential people buried in the South West's oldest garden cemetery

Founded more than 150 years ago, Arnos Vale cemetery, in Bristol, is the oldest garden cemetery in the south west.

It was opened in 1839 by a group of enterprising businessmen, who aimed to provide a spacious alternative to the city's overcrowded and unsanitary parish graveyards.

Despite nearing the brink of closure in the late twentieth century, the 45-acre site was saved by campaigners and it remains a working cemetery to this day.

It is estimated there are now more than 300,000 people remembered within the grounds, many of whom have played an influential role in shaping the city.

Janine Marriott, a thanatologist and the public engagement manager at Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust said the cemetery is "a real place of love".

"You walk around, you look at the graves and you see love. These are people that are remembered and loved and missed," she said.

Ms Marriott added: "The stories are what make the cemetery so special. There's all those stories of all those lives, it could be you know, the local publican or it could be the person that built a big factory, but it's a story, and people love stories."

Raja Rammohun Roy Bahadoor

Rajah Rammohun Roy Bahadoor was an influential religious and political thinker. He coined the word "Hinduism" to describe the diversity of Indian religions, and also campaigned for women's rights. He was influential in working to end the traditional practice of sati — the burning of widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. He came to Bristol in 1833 to visit the Unitarians but died from meningitis during his trip.

Carmen Beckford MBE - 1928-2016

Nicknamed Bristol's "Carnival Queen," Carmen Beckford was an influential social activist and one of Bristol's Seven Saints of St Paul's. She became the city's first Race Relations Officer, and was recognised for her work in 1982 when she was awarded an MBE by the Queen, making her the first black recipient of the award in the South West. Ms Beckford died in 2016 and has a prominent grave in Ceremonial Way opposite the Raja.

William Herapath - 1796-1868

Born in 1796, William Herapath was one of the country's earliest forensic scientists. He co-founded the Bristol Medical School in 1828, where he was appointed professor of chemistry and toxicology, and was also one of the founders of the Chemical Society of London in 1841. His particular speciality was being able to find traces of arsenic in foodstuffs and on kitchen implements, and he was often called upon to testify as an expert witness in criminal cases.

George Müller - 1805-1898

A famous Christian evangelist, George Müller was the director of Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol and one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren movement. He cared for more than 10,000 orphans during his lifetime, and also established 117 schools offering Christian education to more than 120,000 children. He has two grave markers within Arnos Vale cemetery — the large black one standing up was funded by those he cared for during his lifetime. His work is continued today by the George Müller Charitable Trust, which follows his key principle of never asking for financial support.

Mary Carpenter

Born in Exeter in 1807, Mary Carpenter was a social reformer famous for founding "ragged schools" — free schools for poor children. In 1846, she founded her first ragged school in a Bristol slum, and also set up a reformatory school for boys in 1852 and one of Englands' first reformatory schools for girls in 1854.