The adoption of the 1848 Public Health Act - Summer 1850 in Hastings. Under its provisions, the local authority could close nonconformist burial grounds, but they couldn't touch the Church of England ones, no matter how overcrowded and insanitary they were (eg. the St Mary's Battle, as described in the Crecy Report for Battle).
Before they did so, however, they had to provide a municipal cemetery, with sections for Church of England and for other denominations in their area (and religions, if there were residents of other faiths); these areas could be separated off from the C of E.
Locally, as soon as the Cemetery was opened, the local council used their powers to shut all the nonconformist burial grounds, including the recently-opened and decidedly not overcrowded one at Norman Road Methodist Church. Where to be buried had become a severe problem in many built-up areas, especially for nonconformists, and Norman Road had bought enough land for a very large burial ground fronting Shepherd Street; the bodies already buried were re interred at the west end when a Sunday school hall was built, and later the Parlour was added west of the hall, and a chapel, under which the bodies still are, except that the Methodists sold some land for a house or two to be built, on condition that the grave which was on the site of one of them should remain undisturbed in what became the small front garden; it's still there, and still looked after by the house owner.
Sometimes, nonconformists co-operated, and allowed other denominations to be buried (no doubt for a suitable fee).
Quite often, Quakers were buried in gardens, and in orchards.
Other possible pre-1855 locations are: old burial grounds, such as Halton (though this was officially C of E, its use by the Army probably meant that it was more eclectic), Ore, and those connected to ruined churches, such as Bulverhythe, St. Andrews (behind Wellington Square), and Wallinger's Walk (was for St. Mary-in-the-Castle, the original one). I believe the Quaker meeting house at Battle had a burial ground, and Croft Chapel certainly did, though I don't know if there are any records. Quakers kept a record of everyone attending their marriages (being outside the law,1753-1837, they were witnesses, and this was generally accepted by the authorities), and was this was the case for burials?
The Catholics seem to have ignored the authorities, and happily used their burial ground at the Convent of the Holy Child Jesus (Magdalen Road) for many years; : the last burial was in 1987, and like most of them, was of a nun (the others being schoolchildren at the convent); all the tombstones have been moved to be round the walls of the cemetery. A plot plan should have been made before this was done, but whether it was or not, does not alter the fact that it's the law not to disturb any burial less than 100 years old. Heather Grief, 2016
The old St Clement church at Halton, Hastings, East Sussex, England, built 1839, was demolished in 1970. It was at the junction of Priory Road, Egremont Place and Mount Pleasant Road. Some of the graves are around a green in Egremont Place.
Transcriptions of Croft Chapel, Hastings : Largest Non Conformist in Hastings
