On The Hill

In 1917, Cabin Boy Chung Shin is on a trip from Singapore to Portishead when a U-boat attacks the S.S. Sequoya. It is the middle of World War I and the UK, overwhelmed by the great losses of its service men and women, must find a way to honour them. Running out of space again, the Falmouth Cemetery must secure another expansion.

After a short illness for which she sought healing at a spa in Falmouth, Mary Monk passed away and was buried in the Falmouth Cemetery. She was the first female sanitary inspector and health visitor in Portsmouth. What can we learn from her story about the UK’s efforts to reduce child mortality in the late 19th century? The Falmouth Burial Board takes measures to regulate the burial of stillbirths on the Falmouth Cemetery.

In the Falmouth Cemetery, a family grave holds Sir John Gay Newton Alleyne, 3rd Baronet of Four Hills, Barbados. The Alleyne family's sugar plantation in Barbados was maintained by the unpaid labour of African slaves. What does his story tell us about the British Empire? In the middle of the 19th century, the town of Falmouth, overwhelmed by cholera epidemics, is trying to improve the lives of its inhabitants among the Victorian initiatives for orderly lives. The old churchyard in town is too full and making people sick, they must find a new solution.

On The Hill is a new podcast which brings you stories about Cornish cemeteries and those buried there. Each episode reassembles the life of someone departed and the history of the time, and shares original creative writing inspired by them.