Oxford Road Cemetery

• Country Belgium
• Total identified casualties 558 Find these casualties
• Region West-Vlaanderen
• Identified casualties from First World War
• GPS Coordinates Latitude: 50.86928, Longitude: 2.91606

Location information

The cemetery is located to the North-East of the town of Ieper. From the station turn left and drive along M.Fochlaan to the roundabout, turn right and go to the next roundabout. Here turn left into M.Haiglaan and drive to the next roundabout. Here turn right into Oude Veurnestraat, this then changes into Diksmuidseweg and Brugseweg drive along this road to the traffic lights. Straight over the lights to the end of the road. At the T junction turn left (still Brugseweg) and continue along this road through the village of Sint Jan (N313). After the village you come to a fork in the road, take the right hand fork and the cemetery is 50 metres along on the right hand side.

Visiting information

ARRIVAL

The cemetery is signposted at the side of the main road in the nearby village of Wieltje.

Oxford Road Cemetery is 50 metres from the 50th Northumbrian Division British Memorial.

PARKING

Parking for the cemetery is in front of the main entrance, (on Wieltje Rd) where there is space for up to 4 vehicles to park. This parking is within 5 metres of the main gate. The parking area is brick paving with a curved recessed drainage channel running between the length of the area and the tarmac road.

ACCESS LAYOUT AND MAIN ENTRANCE

The cemetery is laid out in a T-shape and surrounded by a low wall and hedge in front of the wall.

There is stone paving in front of the main gate, with a single step up, 150 mm high. There is paving under the gate, along with a semicircular paved area inside the entrance which leads step-free onto grass.

The main gate is in the middle of a tall (chest height) white stone, semi-circular wall. The gate, black metal, is 1 metre wide, mid-level (thigh height) with an up/down latch at the top left corner of the gate. The gate opens into the cemetery.

The Cross of Sacrifice is in the centre of the cemetery, in line with the entrance gate.

To the left of the Cross of Sacrifice, at the far end of the site is an elevated paved platform with the Stone of Remembrance at the centre. Four steps lead up to the platform. There is a vertical drop along all sides of the platform of approximately 400 mm to the grass below.

Behind the Cross of Sacrifice (on the side opposite the Stone of Remembrance) is a stone shelter building with internal stone bench seating. There is a single step up of approximately 75 mm to the interior paving of the building.

The Register Box is mounted into the right-side pillar at the main gate, viewed from inside the cemetery.

All internal paths are grass, the ground is flat and firm.

ALTERNATIVE ACCESS

There is no alternative access into the cemetery.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The cemetery is permanently open.

History information

Oxford Road was the name given to a road running behind the support trenches, from a point west of the village of Wieltje south-eastwards to the Potijze-Zonnebeke road.

Plot I is the original Oxford Road Cemetery and was used by the units fighting on this front from August 1917 to April 1918. In October 1917, another cemetery, known as Oxford Road Cemetery No.2, was started close by and now forms Plot V of the cemetery as it appears today. After the Armistice, Plots II, III and IV were added when scattered graves from the battlefields east and south-east of Ypres (now Ieper) were brought into the cemetery.

There are now 851 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 297 of the burials are unidentified and special memorials commemorate three casualties known to have been buried in the cemetery, but whose graves could not be located.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.