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'Dis-grave-ful' cemetery

Geoff Wellens
1/ 5/2008

"YOU can tell the state of a nation by the way it cares for its dead". I heard this quote a number of years ago though I cannot find who originally said it, or where. However, it bears truth.

While on holiday abroad, I often visit local cemeteries and admire the care taken in their upkeep. Equally, one only has to visit churchyards in Wales and Scotland to find them similarly cared for.

Our churchyards and redundant cemeteries often fall into decay and Middleton Old Cemetery, once the Thornham and Middleton Burial Ground, is no exception.

The flat area, accessed from St Leonard’s Brow, is Middleton Parish ‘Churchyard No 3’. This was once a bowling green seen on the map (coloured by me). The area, known as the Warren, became the local authority cemetery in 1862.

Sam Bamford is buried in the churchyard but his publicly funded obelisk is located in the cemetery near to where the chapel was. His bronze effigy overlooks the town and many of the graves on the south side of the cemetery.

One such grave is that of Abel Wolstenholme whose family were well-known photographers with studios in Rhodes, Blackpool and Blackburn. The photo of his newly erected gravestone, with Long Street Methodist Church and Grey Street in the distance, is in perfect condition. Compare it with the photo I took in early April 2008.

What would Sam Bamford say about it?

The view of the church shows how well the cemetery was once cared for. Even the coffin biers are safely stacked, awaiting the next burial.

So what can be done about the mess our cemetery is in? The local authority does send a team in from time to time to cut the grass. Yet half the headstones have been pushed over (some by cemetery staff to make them safe) but the majority by vandals, resulting in many memorials being put beyond repair.

Possibly the answer is to record all the inscriptions prior to covering over the majority of graves with earth (leaving some standing to remind people it is a cemetery). Then sow grass seed, plant shrubs and make it an extension of Jubilee Park and an area that everyone can safely visit.

And I don't say this lightly. I already have a grave there and want to be buried among seven generations of my family.

Boarshaw Cemetery (the New Cemetery), was dedicated by the bishop in 1914 as the earlier cemetery was rapidly filling up. Boarshaw has plenty of room. The unfenced area adjacent to Hereford Way is cemetery extension.

Some forty years ago, a sign on Boarshaw Rd read, "TO CEMETERY, NO THROUGH ROAD".

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