IT FOCUSES on what has been described as the "dead centre of the city" and has been called one of the most unusual DVDs of the year.

The disc features no fewer than 7000 photographs and transcriptions of the words inscribed on some of the monuments within the vast Glasgow Necropolis, where some 50,000 people have been buried over the past 180 years.

The DVD is the work of the Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society.

Rich and poor, captains of industry and ordinary workers, husbands, wives and children have all been buried in the Necropolis, which lies to the east of Glasgow Cathedral.

In a BBC TV programme four years ago, Gyles Brandreth, filmed on a visit to the Necropolis, said: "Some believe it to be the most architecturally important cemetery in Britain ... Everywhere there are the most amazing monuments."

Project co-ordinator John McCreadie says the ambitious project to record the Necropolis and its residents was begun in 1980 by a long-term member, Morag Fyfe, but lay dormant until being revived two years ago by a team of volunteers.

He said: "The 26 volunteers photographed the inscriptions on the headstones and transcribed them at home, while others checked the transcriptions.

"It's been a colossal labour of love and we're finally approaching the end. As far as we know, this project is unique. We don't know of another cemetery whose headstones have been catalogued and photographed for a DVD."

The layout of the Necropolis was based on the design of the world-famous Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, the final resting place of Chopin, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Victor Hugo and Oscar Wilde, and it welcomed its first internee in 1832, one Joseph Levi, a Jewish jeweller.

John said: "There's a little Jewish section there, a walled area, but there are only eight or nine stones visible now.

"However, if you read the history books, around 70 people were buried there before burials were switched to the Sandymount cemetery, at Springboig."

The first Christian burial at the Necropolis, according to the Glasgow Necropolis website, took place the following year, when Elizabeth Miles, stepmother of the cemetery superintendent, George Mylne, was laid to rest.

Another early resident was Ebenezer Bell, 72, who died on August 4, 1835, aboard the Earl Grey, a steamer which plied the route between Glasgow and Rothesay, when its boiler blew up, killing six people and injuring a further 20.

The Necropolis covers 37 acres and is split into 22 sections.

At the top of the hill, behind the John Knox monument, there are elaborate tombs and lairs marking the final resting places of well-to-do people from the city's past: shipbuilders, tobacco lords and merchants and their families.

By the time you reach the lower part, just behind Tennents brewery, the graves are generally more modest.

Many leading architects and sculptors were commissioned to design and build memorials. There is even an early example of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

However, normal wear and tear over the decades, coupled with vandalism and graffiti, has left many stones damaged. Others have become overgrown with moss or ivy.

John Mills, one of the volunteers on the project, said: "There has been a fair amount of erosion, for one reason or another. There's one obelisk which has been worn away by rain dripping on to it, leaving nothing that can be read.

"That is one reason for doing the DVD now. Wherever you go in the Necropolis, the monuments are disappearing rapidly. Getting them photographed and transcribed now preserves them for posterity.

"While transcribing them, if we tried to pull the ivy away from some of the stones, the top layer of stone's face would come away, so we had to be very careful.

"In most cases, if we managed to find just one name, we were delighted, but, the more names we found, the better, so that we could build up a picture of that particular family."

Graveyards aren't usually places that raise a smile, but now and again the volunteers were amused by what they found. John said: "One monument, because of the way it's built, has a lot of little ledges on it, with lots of little coins around them. We were wondering, given the night-time visitors to the cemetery, why the coins were still there.

"It's only when you look up that you realise that this monument commemorates Clarinda, Queen of the Gypsies. So perhaps people have been reluctant to take the money, just in case they are cursed."

l More information from the Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society website, www.gwsfhs.org.uk. The DVD (£20), will be available early next month. You can also get more information about the Necropolis from www.glasgownecropolis.org