The Rest Garden is dominated by the series of raised vaults which were designed by Amon Henry Wilds as a part of his initial layout.

The inscriptions were recorded by the council in the late 1940’s as part of the wholesale clearances which took place at that time, but the focus of this was to fulfill legal obligations around moving/removing headstones and tombs; as moving the vaults was not proposed, they were simply ignored during this process

Because of this, little is known about the vaults and of the fourteen it is only possible to identify those remembered at five of them; the noted Royal Physician Sir Matthew John Tierney, former mayor and Brewer Henry Smithers, the Butler family, the Outlaw sisters and George Rolle Walpole Trefusis

Of these, Sir Matthew Tierney and Henry Smithers are covered elsewhere on this site and no information has yet been uncovered about the Butler family or about Cap’t Trefusis.

The Outlaw sisters were the daughters of the Rev Robert Outlaw of Shropshire. Scant material has been uncovered as to their lives save for the curiosity that Ann Outlaw died at Brompton and was buried at Brighton, whilst her Sister Sarah died at Brighton and was buried at Brompton, which might be taking sibling animosity a bit far…

Vault 13 was never occupied – as vaults were purchased by the future occupants during their life, it may be that the superstitions attached to this number were off-putting. It is now used as a toolstore by the St Nicholas Green Spaces volunteer gardeners, and is opened for public viewing on occasion.

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