 Tiverton Cemetery opened in 1855 on a three-acre site following a rapid growth in population nationally and locally during the early Victorian era.The first burial occurred on 5 June 1855 and was of five-year-old Charles Harris from the Union Workhouse, the first of eight interments that week.In its early months the cemetery was used exclusively for burying the poor because those who could afford to preferred to be buried at St. Peter's Church in Tiverton.