Heritage Open Day: Join us at Ballast Hills Burial Ground for Beneath This Ground, a moving performance of poetry and fiddle music inspired by the lives of 40,000 people buried here, bringing their stories to life in this historic and atmospheric setting. Ballast Hills Burial Ground (BHBG), in the Ouseburn Valley within the Byker Ward, is one of Newcastle’s oldest surviving nonconformist (dissenters’) burial spaces. Known for its affordable burial fees, it became the final resting place for many of the city’s working poor, including people of different faiths. In 1929, the gravestones were removed and re-laid to form the circular path seen today, while the bodies remain undisturbed, along with most of their stories.