Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries were opened within one month of each other in 1858 and are sited on adjacent plots of previously open land. They were to receive burials from the two parishes of Lewisham and Deptford. Originally separated by a strip of land, later extensions resulted in them abutting one another and now the old dividing wall is marked only by a grassy ridge.
Until 1948, the two cemeteries were completely separate. Ladywell Cemetery, which was previously known as Lewisham Cemetery, stands to the east of the wall and Brockley Cemetery, formerly Deptford Cemetery, lies to the west.
There is a large Roman Catholic section at the western end of Brockley Cemetery, and a later extension in the south which was used between 1922 and 1935 and is densely packed with gravestones. By 1914 Lewisham Cemetery had been renamed Ladywell, and Deptford later became known as Brockley. Since the creation of the London Borough of Lewisham in 1965 they have been administered as a single unit.
Those known to have been buried here:
Henry William Reffell, age: 32, burial date: 13 August 1886 (Ladywell)
Arthur Ernest Reffell, age: 2, burial date: 28 March 1898 (Ladywell)
William George Reffell, age: 20, burial date: 7 March 1894 (Brockley)
Ann Reffell, age: 66, burial date: February 1902 (Brockley)
Emma Millicent Reffell, age: 50, burial date: 25 September 1915 (Brockley)
Samuel Frederick Reffell, age: 64, burial date: December 1925 (Brockley)
Alice Maud Reffell, age: 63, burial date: 28 April 1926 (Brockley)
James John Reffell, age: 72, burial date: 25 February 1931 (Brockley)
Henry William Reffell, age: 57, burial date: 13 May 1931 (Brockley)