Toxteth Park Cemetery

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Toxteth Park Cemetery
Toxteth Cemetery June 10 2010 (17).jpg
Toxteth Park Cemetery
Toxteth Park Cemetery
Details
EstablishedJune 1856
Location
Liverpool, Merseyside
CountryEngland
TypePublic
Owned by Liverpool City Council
No. of graves144,000
Website Official website
Find a Grave Toxteth Park Cemetery

Toxteth Park Cemetery is a graveyard on Smithdown Road, Liverpool, United Kingdom. It was opened on Monday 9 June 1856. It was the responsibility of the Toxteth Park Burial Board, which had been established by at least 1855. [1]

Contents

The opening ceremony was performed by the then Lord Bishop of Chester, and the first interment took place, that of an Elizabeth Watling on 17 June 1856.

The cemetery was built with consecrated and unconsecrated areas, and the layout, featuring walks, was by a "Mr Gay of Bradford cemetery". [1]

It was taken over by Liverpool Corporation on 1 January 1905. [1]

Records

The cemetery's records are held on microfilm in the Liverpool Record Office, and provide the Burial Registers and the Order Books.

Structures

The cemetery is itself Grade II listed [2] and incorporates a derelict chapel, a derelict mason's yard and a pair of lodges or gatehouses at the Smithdown Road entrance. A significant number of obelisk and Celtic cross gravestones are also listed. The cemetery also contains Toxteth War Memorial.

To the rear, the cemetery bounds the back gardens of houses on Arundel Avenue, and can be accessed through turnstiles in an ornate gateway set back from that road at the end of a short lane. On the easterly lodge at the main entrance at Smithdown Road there is a sign with provision for the insertion of digits indicating the time of evening at which these rear entrance turnstiles will be closed, but for some time this sign has been disused, as this lodge also appears to be (the westerly lodge being inhabited and, as of spring 2009, up for auction.)

Grade II listed memorials include those of Sir John Bent, [3] Eleanora and Willam Gillespie, [4] Hetherington family, [5] Dr James Sheridan Muspratt, [6] Thomas Pennington, [7] Robert Rodgers, [8] Agnes and John Rowe [9] and Patience Simpson [10]

In 2009 a ceremony organised by Sons of Confederate Veterans, allegedly a Neo-Confederate organisation, rededicating the grave of Irvine Bulloch [11]

War Graves

War memorial CWGC memorial, Toxteth Park Cemetery.jpg
War memorial

The cemetery contains the war graves of 274 Commonwealth service personnel, 227 from World War I and 45 from World War II. The largest group are in a War Graves plot containing 69 graves, the names of those in the plot being listed on a Screen Wall curb memorial, while other graves are dispersed throughout the cemetery. Fifty of the British dead are soldiers of the King's Liverpool Regiment. [12]

John Hulley's grave

John Hulley's grave as found in February 2008 John Hulley's grave as found in February 2008.jpg
John Hulley's grave as found in February 2008
John Hulley's grave in June 2009 after renovation John Hulley grave.jpg
John Hulley's grave in June 2009 after renovation

Buried in the cemetery (Grave G493) is John Hulley, founder of the Liverpool Gymnasium and the National Olympian Association, who died in 1873. Revival of interest in his role in Olympic history was initiated by an article (2001) in the Journal of Olympic History entitled "The Mystery of John Hulley". [13] Subsequently, his grave was rediscovered in 2008; it was badly damaged in that the headstone had been removed from the main covering stones and the grave was in a very bad condition from 130 years of atmospheric pollution. [14] [15] [16]

A Memorial Fund was set up to raise money for the restoration of Hulley's grave and increase awareness of his part in the founding of the British Olympic movement. [17] [18] This took several months but thanks to generous donations from the International Olympic Committee, the British Olympic Association, and members of the public, sufficient funds were raised to engage a stonemason.

Messrs Welsbys of Liverpool renovated the grave and brought it back to its original condition and a re-dedication ceremony was held in 2009. [19] [20]

Neighbours

At the eastern end of the high southern boundary wall, where the cemetery ends and the grounds of a supermarket, a medical clinic, and modern houses begin, the high wall continues but the style of brickwork can be seen to change; this area now occupied by the aforementioned modern buildings was previously the Toxteth Park Workhouse, which was built in 1859 by the Toxteth Park Board of Guardians as part of the West Derby Union. In 1923 the workhouse changed its name to the Smithdown Road Institution; in 1930 the Poor Law was abolished and the Union was disbanded, so the hospital was taken over by Liverpool Corporation. In 1933, its name was changed to Smithdown Road Infirmary, and in about 1950 its name was changed again, to Sefton General Hospital. Most of it was demolished in 2001 but a part of the original workhouse hospital, Arundel House, still stands. [21] [22]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Liverpool Record Office – Toxteth Park Cemetery". Archived from the original on 9 May 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2009.
  2. ↑ Historic England, "Toxteth Park Cemetery (1001611)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 August 2018
  3. ↑ Historic England, "Sir John Bent MP Memorial at Toxteth Park Cemetery (1078258)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 August 2018
  4. ↑ Historic England, "Eleanora and William Gillespie Obelisk at Toxteth Park Cemetery (1078265)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 August 2018
  5. ↑ Historic England, "Hetherington Memorial 5 Metres south of East Lodge at Toxteth Park Cemetery (1078255)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 August 2018
  6. ↑ Historic England, "Dr James Sheridan Muspratt Memorial approximately 185 metres south of main entrance at Toxteth Park Cemetery (1078260)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 August 2018
  7. ↑ Historic England, "Thomas Pennington Memorial approximately 145m south of main entrance at Toxteth Park Cemetery (1078259)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 August 2018
  8. ↑ Historic England, "Robert Rodgers Obelisk at Toxteth Park Cemetery (1078264)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 August 2018
  9. ↑ Historic England, "Agnes and John Roew Obelisk at Toxteth Park Cemetery (1078263)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 August 2018
  10. ↑ Historic England, "Patience Simpson Memorial approximately 160m south of main entrance at Toxteth Park Cemetery (1078258)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 August 2018
  11. ↑ "Liverpool deals with strong US-based Neo-Confederate links – CNN Video". 17 August 2020 – via edition.cnn.com.
  12. ↑ CWGC Cemetery Report. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  13. ↑ Journal of Olympic History, Volume 9 Number 1, Winter 2001. Organic Olympism or Olympic Orgy: The Roots of Modern Olympism and the Mystery of John Hulley by Dr. Don Anthony (PDF), International Society of Olympic Historians , retrieved 12 November 2011
  14. ↑ "How we lit the Olympic flame", Bootle Times , 28 April 2010, retrieved 29 November 2011
  15. ↑ "Mersey man John Hulley's Olympic legacy honoured in triathlon renaming by Liverpool FC's Jamie Carragher", Liverpool Daily Post, 8 August 2008, retrieved 29 November 2011
  16. ↑ Mersey man John Hulley's Olympic legacy honoured in triathlon renaming, Crosby Herald, 28 April 2010, retrieved 29 November 2011
  17. ↑ John Hulley Memorial Fund, archived from the original on 25 April 2012, retrieved 12 November 2011
  18. ↑ "Fund to restore Hulley's grave", Liverpool Daily Post, 8 August 2008, retrieved 12 November 2011
  19. ↑ Forgotten Olympian honoured in Liverpool ceremony, Played in Britain, 22 July 2009, retrieved 29 November 2011
  20. ↑ Transmission of the Olympic Idea, Kingston Athletic Club and Polytechnic Harriers, 8 January 2010, retrieved 29 November 2011
  21. ↑ "Liverpool Record Office – Sefton General Hospital". Archived from the original on 9 May 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2009.
  22. ↑ The National Trust – E. Chambré Hardman archive Archived 2007-10-18 at the Wayback Machine

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