Preston Heritage Weekend Event Preston Cemetery

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My second activity on the last day of Preston’s proud Heritage Weekend celebrations was the only fully outdoor event of the activities I took part in, a guided tour of Preston’s main cemetery. With many church yard burial areas filled to capacity, Victoria’s government ordered the building of municipal graveyards in many leading towns and cities and the closure of many smaller church yard burial areas too. Preston Cemetery opened in 1855, divided into three sections, for Catholic, Church Of England Protestants and non-conformists. A Jewish cemetery opened here in 1904 and a Muslim burial area was added in the 1960’s. The latest area to be developed is a woodlands burial zone for people who wish to have a tree planted on their graves rather than a headstone. The cemetery has become a wildlife sanctuary, and walks can be organized just to see the various fauna and wildlife the grounds attracts. Trees and flowers vary from the oak, to the beech, with toadstools and brambles also abounding. The walk I took was however that covering the cemeteries more unusual and historic graves. A map allows walkers to see them without a guide but our party was led by a knowledgeable council official linked to the cemeteries. The map shows that the cemetery is purposely laid out in the pattern of a butterfly with its wings extended. There are 14 graves of historic note listed on the map though it is possible to spot others of great merit too among the thousands of headstones. Near to the gate is the tall cemetery war memorial and a very sad area for the graves of recently dead babies, on which parents have placed little cuddly toys and paper windmills as well as flowers. Graves of note 1/. The Longest silliest name – the grave of a man called Thomas Hill Joseph Napoleon Horatio Bonaparte Swindlehurst who died in 1923. No one could tell me how he got that outrageous name. 2/. Joseph Livesy – Founder member of the Temperance Movement who campaigned all his life against the evils of drink. He died in 1884, aged 90. Our guide told us that drinkers often abandon empty whisky bottles on the grave. 3/. Edward Grubb – The last survivor of Livesy’s Temperance team, who lived to the age of 80 in 1891. 4/. George Smith – The Chaplain who survived at the 1879 Zulu Wars battle at Rourke’s Drift. This ties in with having seen the pub inn at The Sumners where he lived and which I mentioned in a previous blog here. 5/. James And Henry Hall, aged 11 and 3 – 1856. A dreadful tragedy this one, which moved the hearts of many at the time. The boys were the sons of a Preston chemist and unfortunately gained access to some of his medical bottles, which they drank from, and died. The gravestone shows the boys lying peacefully side by side. 6/. War Graves – A large very well tended section of military graves from both World Wars. 7/. James Burscough – 1857 – his inscription reads “As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you must be. – Sobering thoughts. 8/. Eizabeth Christian, aged 5 – 1855 – the first ever burial in the cemetery. 9/. James Brocklebank Proctor – 1855 – A murderer, with his name purposely not given on the headstone. He shot his lover and then killed himself too. 10/. James Hibbert – 1903. The architect behind many leading Preston buildings including The Harris Centre Museum and Library. 11/. Thomas Duckett Senior – A leading 19th century Sculptor, with much of his work on display around Preston. He is sculpted on the front of the grave-marker with his wife’s face on the back, which seems a rather insensitive separation. 12/. Matthew Brown – Owner of the Matthew Brown Brewery who produced many ales I have consumed – great to see his family vault is bigger than those of the Temperance men who opposed his business. 13/. Private William Young VC 1916 Aged 38. A true war hero. In December of 1915, he saw his own sergeant injured and caught on barbed wire, and under intense enemy fire, he set out to rescue him. Young was targeted, taking severe shrapnel wounds receiving chest injuries and a broken jaw but completed his rescue work despite this and then got sent to hospital. He seemed to initially survive, only to die back in England from complications the following August. 14/. Annie Kelly 1887, aged 19 – This poor lady was murdered by her lover Alfred Sowery who wanted her to elope to the US with him. When she refused to go with him until they were married, he shot her dead in public in a coffee house and tried but failed four times to pull the trigger on himself too. The gallows finished his work for him. Annie’s parents were unable to afford the journey from Ireland for her funeral and her huge Celtic cross grave marker was donated by well wishers in Ireland who were moved by her story of dying in defence of her virtue and honour. Some graves not marked on the map were pointed out by our guide. On one, a man’s grave stone has a woman sleeping in nightwear on top of it. She was added by his wife on the grounds that he spent much of his life sleeping with strange women that it seemed apt for one to join him in his final sleep. Another was the grave of Rab ‘Rabbi’ Howell, the first Romany Gypsy to play professional football – he was a leading player for Preston North End. Another legendary Preston North End player, Samuel Thompson, of a team known in their day as The Old Invincibles, is also buried here. A very informative walk and talk event, helped by glorious sunshine, with much pleasure and life-enriching knowledge in a place of great sorrow, grief and pain. Arthur Chappell