In the nineteenth century the Industrial Revolution and changes to the rural economy caused a large migration of people from the countryside to the town. Public health in the growing cities became a major problem as overcrowding, a lack of clean water and primitive sewerage systems fuelled epidemics. By the 1840s Leicester's seven churchyards and seventeen chapel burial grounds were becoming full to overflowing and parts of the water supply were polluted with the run-off from graveyards. Leicester was not unusual in this respect, and by 1855 an Act had been passed closing town and city churchyards.

In 1843 Leicester's large dissenting community led by William Biggs, a Unitarian, bought 17 acres of land overlooking the city on Knighton Hill to create a cemetery for dissenters. It soon became obvious that the cemetery would need to take Anglicans too and the Borough took over and obtained Parliamentary permission to establish the cemetery in May 1848. Biggs, who was now Mayor, opened the cemetery on a rainy Tuesday 19th June 1849 in front of 3,000 people and the Duke of Rutland's Yeomanry Band led by Henry Nicholson. The first burial was of James Page, a hosier, on 28th June.

The chapels, one for Anglicans and one for other denominations were completed in 1850 (although sadly demolished as unsafe just over 100 years later) and the Bishop of Peterborough consecrated the ground to be used for Anglican burials. The cemetery soon started to need more space and in 1870, an adjacent brick works and plaster pit was purchased to create the 30 acre plot that we see today. Between 1855 and 1901 the cemetery was the only burial ground in Leicester and contains Victorian Leicester's rich and poor alike. In the 20th Century new cemeteries opened at Gilroes and Saffron Hill and gradually the numbers buried in Welford Road decreased. During the First World War the current University of Leicester site was part of the 5th Northern General Hospital and the cemetery has 286 servicemen buried there from that conflict including 6 Australians and 9 Belgians. Many are buried within a small war cemetery enclosed on one side by a memorial wall. There are also 46 servicemen and women from the Second World War alongside victims of the Leicester blitz.

The cemetery is now effectively full but there are still a few burials each year in those existing freehold graves which have spaces remaining. In 2006 Leicester Council and The Friends of Welford Road Cemetery secured a Heritage Lottery Grant to restore paths and walls and to build a new Visitor Centre to enhance the experience of those visiting this beautiful and historic green space near the heart of the modern city. Today there are over 213,000 people buried in the cemetery in about 40 thousand graves. There are around 10,000 memorials.

Welford Road Cemetery predates Leicester's public parks and is a classic Victorian garden cemetery intended as somewhere for the people of Leicester to enjoy the views over the Soar Valley, the fresh air and the flowers, shrubs and trees as well as to admire the memorials and pay respects to the departed. It was the third public municipal cemetery to be created in England with only Birmingham and Plymouth being older.

For more information, see Wade-Matthews, M. (1995) Grave Matters: a walk through Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester, 2nd ed. Loughborough: Heart of Albion Press