'Haunting' is not a word that should be used to describe Undercliffe Cemetery, the necropolis on the hillside that's been functioning as a burial site for 161 years.

There is nothing remotely ghostlike about the obelisks, mausoleums and memorials on which the wealthier Victorians and Edwardians spent good money to ensure a little bit of posterity in this corner of an English field.

They didn't want to frighten visitors but impress upon them the monuments of their magnificence.

Established by the Bradford Cemetery Company consisting of prominent Non-conformist businessmen such as Henry Brown, Titus Salt, Edward Ripley and Robert Milligan - the first Mayor of Bradford - the site at Undercliffe was bought in 1851 for £3,400.

William Gay, who was appointed the first Registrar, laid out the site at a cost of £12,000.

The promenade through the cemetery offered spectacular views over the city. The intention was to create a visually uplifting place above the scores of factory and mill chimneys - the symbols of Bradford's prosperity.

Although built with the glory of God in mind, the material accomplishments of those interred were not far behind.

You don't have to go far into photo-historian Mark Davis's new book to discover this. In black and white and colour, his photographs take you on a pictorial tour of the 26 acres of stone; under snowfall and in sunlight, at dawn and in electrically lit-up night, "Bradford's illustrious industrial history is etched forever," Mr Davis says in his introduction.

Gathering the pictures "in all weathers and seasons" took him five years. He didn't do it to convey some gothic Burke and Hare image to deter the superstitious but to capture something of Undercliffe's self-assured grandeur.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Mike Gibbons, emphasises this in his foreword. "People from all over the world visit Undercliffe Cemetery to pay respects, to feel close to passed loved ones, to give thanks and maybe to simply marvel at the scale, beauty and grandeur of a Bradford treasure."

Older Bradfordians will recall, however, that this wasn't always the case.

In the late 1970s the cemetery became a battle-ground. Following a decline in the number of burials, the Bradford Cemetery Company was liquidated in 1977. Bradford Council did not want the financial responsibility of maintaining it.

In 1980 the site was sold to a property developer. Two chapels built in 1878 were demolished along with the lodges at the north and south entrances and some kerbstones were removed by bulldozers.

It emerged that the registration of the cemetery to the property developer had been refused by the Land Registry under a clause that prohibits the sale of consecrated ground that has been used for burial.

In 1984 after a concerted campaign, Bradford Council applied to compulsorily purchase the cemetery and the area was made a conservation area. In January 1986, the Telegraph & Argus announced that a £360,000 three year Community Programme Scheme funded by the then Manpower Services Commission set about resurrecting the cemetery.

Flowers and shrubs were to be planted and a lodge from Bowling Cemetery was moved to the site and rebuilt at the southern entrance.

In 1987 the management of the cemetery was given over to The Undercliffe Cemetery Charity and in 1988 English Heritage added the place to its Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest as grade II listed and upgraded it to grade II* the year after.

For nine years or so Undercliffe was in the wilderness. During that time cemeteries were like disused collieries: they were not considered objects of either historical interest or cultural importance. That attitude has been history for nearly 30 years.

Fifteen years ago a national newspaper made a comparison with London's most famous necropolis. "Where Highgate has Marx, so Undercliffe has Bob Cryer, Labour MP for Bradford South, who died in 1994 and whose gravestone reads: 'Socialist, parliamentarian, iconoclast and lifelong rebel'."

But Bob Cryer was a much nicer man than troubled Karl Marx.

Mr Davis will be conducting a nocturnal guided tour of Undercliffe Cemetery during the Bradford Literature Festival on May 21 from 8pm until 9pm. For more information go to info@bradfordliteraturefestival.co.uk.

* Necropolis: City of the Dead, by Mark Davis, is published by Amberley at £15.99.