Castletown Cemetery

Castletown Cemetery (opens new window) opened on 21 May 1921 and covers 4.5 acres of ground. Since 1 April 1967, the cemetery has been under the control of Sunderland City Council.

Hylton is a parish 3 miles west of the city centre. Castletown is a village within the parish and the cemetery lies on the Hylton Castletown Road.

Soon after the outbreak of the Word War Two, the Parish Council set aside a piece of ground for war burials in Section D on the south-western boundary of the cemetery. This is now the official War Graves Section.

During the war the cemetery was used by the Royal Air Force for casualties from the Operational Training Unit at the nearby RAF station at Usworth, and the majority of the war graves are those of men of the British Commonwealth and Polish Air Forces stationed there.

Of the 48 war burials in the cemetery, 3 soldiers and 13 members of the Air Force belong to the United Kingdom Forces; 9 airmen to the Royal Canadian Air Force; 4 airmen to the Royal Australian Air Force; 1 sailor to the Royal New Zealand Navy and 1 airman to the Royal New Zealand Air Force; 6 airmen to the Polish Air Force; 1 German to the German Navy and 10 Germans to the German Air Force. One of the German airmen could not be identified.

All except five of the 48 casualties are buried in the War Graves Plot. The German graves are together in a group at the south-western end of the cemetery.

Opening times

Whilst cemetery gates are not formally closed and public access is available without restriction, we recommend that, for safety reasons, cemeteries are accessed during daylight hours only.

Ward plans

Ward plans are available for Castletown Cemetery.