9 replies to this topic

[stephen nulty]

F0ollowing on from my Prescot Roll of Honour research, I have been looking into the history of Prescot St Mary’s Churchyard. I have a few documents from Lancashire Records Office, mainly from the 1920’s and discussing the opening of the “new” cemetery next door, and I also have a set of documents which record the correspondence between the Imperial War Graves Commission and the Sexton of the churchyard in the 1920’s though to 1937.

I live in hope that one day I will find a details map of the churchyard, giving me reference points for some of the burials I am aware of, and the CWGC map of the churchyard which only records about 23 graves, does give me some idea. Some old maps that I have show the boundaries of the churchyard before the changes made in the 1960.

But the main data that I have been analysing is that extracted from the LAN-OPC data (and reformatted for me by Dave, and the burial registers from 1900 to 1921 which I have had copied.

What this data shows is that in that relatively small churchyard, between 1665 and 1920, there were at least 41,904 burials. I say “at least” because I have incomplete data for four years in that period and obviously burials continued after 1920. Even after the “new” cemetery opened next door, burials into existing family plots continued, and I have also noted that in the churchyard there is a large stone recording that the remains from the churchyard in Houghton Street/Beaconsfield Street were brought in when that old cemetery was “re-used”.

But the 41,904 above are (for the majority anyway), named individuals with a burial date, age and some basic details.

Looking at the current churchyard, I would hazard a guess that there may be around 300 headstones in there, clearly showing the vast majority to be in unmarked graves. I suspect we will never know exactly where the vast majority of the bodies lie – and that includes quite a few members of the Nulty family, including my great grandfather who was buried somewhere there in 1933 ironic, given that he and his son, my grandfather Thomas Nulty, were both gravediggers there.

I am now about to start work on an analysis of the ages of those deceased – though I can already tell you that there is, sadly, a significant number of infants included in the total.

Edited by stephen nulty, 04 January 2012 - 08:12 AM.

[stephen nulty]

The numbers of burials over the years for which I have data make interesting reading. From 1665 to the end of the 17^th Century, the average was just 79 burials per year, little over one per week. A steady increase then started which saw the average for the 18^th Century rise to 128 per year.

However, as might be expected, the number grew significantly through the 19^th century. Over the complete 100 years, the average almost doubled, to 230 per year. As we entered the 20^th Century, the 20 years for which I have data show an average of 159 per year.

The maximum number of burials in a year was 396 in 1847, with the 1840’s being a decade in which the average number of deaths per year stood at 267. This was almost certainly attributable to the poor health of the thousands of Irish migrants to the area as a result of the famine in Ireland.

As the century progressed, the average for the 1850’s was 233 per year, 1860’s was 220 per year, 1870’s 243 per year, 1880’s 258 per year and the 1890’s was the peak average with 280 per year. I have to say that I don’t have any ready explanation or analysis of the numbers as all I am analysing is burial data and not death data.

As we started the 20^th Century, the 1900’s averaged just 154 per year and the 1910’s was 165 per year (though I am missing some data from 1905 and 1906).

I had expected to find a significant increase in the 1918/1919 period, due to the Spanish Flu pandemic which swept the world, but Prescot appears to have escaped lightly with 180 deaths in 1918 and a decrease to 164 in 1919.

No doubt the increase in health care, as rudimentary as it was, allied to the awareness and reaction to the poor living conditions around the town, helped to increase the number of people living longer.

[busybee]

Hi Ste

interesting reading, I also have ancestors buried in Prescot and have no idea where their graves are located. There are two branches laid to rest there one dated from 1754, although I have looked around the cemetery there is no evidence of them (and there are a few different graves)one day I hope to try and find where they are.

Fingers crossed
Busybee

[non sibi sed omnibus]

I have just found other info for my relatives again via ST MARY'S.I again was given info around the 1840s onwards for Irish relatives.When I started my family tree I had no idea of these links and was amazed at the info coming via ST Mary's.Considering relatives moved around St.Helens was confused as to the importance for BMD.
I was however saddened to learn about the issue over past treatment of the area and the way the graveyard was.
What helped me greatly was the fact that Grave details via ST.Helens Cemetry gave me addl names and links.
I assume no such records are available in many other cemetries?
I commend Stephen's efforts.

[tessmop]

You are right in thinking spanish flu,in the st helens cemetery ground 19 has a lot of children and toddlers who died because of that.

[paully22]

hi, re; the cwgc headstones in prescot cemetery , why are there 3 or 4 near the manchester rd area and why are they spread out , as the rest of that part of the cemetery is quite sparse and empty ? paul

[stephen nulty]

Paul

The area you mention, with very few headstones, is mainly the area where those who died don't have a headstone. In addition, as you enter the churchyard from Manchester Road, the area to the right is where the pauper's burials took place, and there were a lot of them.

The CWGC stones were erected commencing 1925 and families whose dead qualified for a CWGC commemoration were given the option of having a CWGC headstone. It seems to me that the families of those who had been buried without a stone would have requested one, whereas those whose graves were already marked with a Private memorial would often leave it at that.

So although the stones are few, don't think that there aren't any graves there. In fact, as you'll see from the earlier posts, there are thousands of people buried there but the graves aren't marked.

[GeoffB]

It appears that not all burials may have been in St Mary's grave yard.

I came across this in the Liverpool Mercury Friday April 18 1851

Prescot Petty Sessions Tuesday 15 April 1851

Peter Quinn

was charged with indecently burying a child, in a field, at Prescot. He pleaded that it was customary in Ireland, and he considered the same practice prevailed here, but that, on being informed by the police that he had done wrong, he had dug the child up, and burled it in the churchyard. As it appeared that the child had been taken up, he was

reprimanded

and discharged.

The 1851 Census shows Peter Quinn living in The Camp

[paully22]

thanks, i thought that they had been brought back to the uk and died of wounds here and then buried, i thought that they were expecting a lot of war deaths and they were perhaps keeping that space free for this purpose , i didnt realise that there were lots of burials there as well, whenever am travelling round the uk i always find time to visit the local cemetery and would seek out the cwgc headstones and read them, have done the battlefield tours of france and belguim many times and its very sad, esp tyne cot cemetery, ,

thanks, i thought that they had been brought back to the uk and died of wounds here and then buried, i thought that they were expecting a lot of war deaths and they were perhaps keeping that space free for this purpose , i didnt realise that there were lots of burials there as well, whenever am travelling round the uk i always find time to visit the local cemetery and would seek out the cwgc headstones and read them, have done the battlefield tours of france and belguim many times and its very sad, esp tyne cot cemetery, ,

[stephen nulty]

Paul

Further to the posts above, if you visit this page http://prescot-rollo...prescot_burials on my web site, you will see a list of all the men buried in St Mary's Churchyard who are commemorated by CWGC. You'll notice the column "Type" which shows that several have private memorials and not CWGC stones.

These are almost certainly men whose family had a stone mounted before the CWGC started their pprogram in 1925