Oldest Graveyard / Grave in Southport

[Coastal99]

Walked through Duke St Cemetery the other week and had a look at some of the old graves as I was passing through. It got me wondering :

1. Which is the oldest Graveyard in Southport (area) - presumably Crossens ?

and

2. What's the oldest date on a gravestone

There are plenty dated around 1830's but I'm sure there will be earlier dates than that ?

[said]

Walked through Duke St Cemetery the other week and had a look at some of the old graves as I was passing through. It got me wondering :

1. Which is the oldest Graveyard in Southport (area) - presumably Crossens ?

and

2. What's the oldest date on a gravestone

There are plenty dated around 1830's but I'm sure there will be earlier dates than that ?

A reflection of the miserable weather, perhaps?

A cemetery is different to a graveyard. A cemetery will only have relatively recent burials of perhaps a couple of hundred yeas old. A graveyard will have much older tombstones

Southport is only around 230 years old, but Churchtown is mentioned in the Domesday Book. St Cuthberts is the oldest church. I cannot find any mention of the dates of particular graves in the graveyard there - it was said that St. Cuthbert himself was buried at Churchtown, but since St. Cuthbert gives his name to around thirty Churches, it would be difficult to know. The monks in AD875 did exhume the grave of their Saint when the Danish invaded, and they carried St. Cuthberts corpse to various churches, but the body is now believed to have been buried at Durham.

If you go to visit St. Cuthberts Church in Churchtown, look for the grave of the guardian. This would have been the first grave in a churchyard. Generally, the guardians grave has a statue of an Angel or hooded being - but where an ordinary grave has a statue also, the guardian's statue does not look downward in mourning, it looks across the churchyard as if protecting it.
Way back in history, a person would be selected as a guardian of a church, and then buried alive in the churchyard to watch over the churchyard and protect it from evil. The same went for a statue -sometimes the statue can be of an animal, such as a dog etc., that would also be buried alive as a guardian.
So if a job vacancy comes up for a Guardian of a church - best ignore it.

[seivad]

I don't know if any of you ever read Geoff Wright's Nostalgia articles in the Visiter, but he writes some interesting stuff, with great illustrations. Below are 2 interesting articles written by Geoff about a bone house at St Cuthbert's. Apparently churchyards were often very small, making it difficult to find space for graves. Bodies were buried for long enough to decompose. They were then exhumed, the remains were cleaned, then moved to the bone house.

In the area that I live in native Indians used to do the same thing. There is a Huron ossuary where, as recorded by a French missionary in 1636, over 1,000 Huron people's bones were reburied in a pit.

Here are Geoff's articles:

Part 1 https://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/n...-part-13251073

Part 2 https://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/n...berts-13212429

[said]

I don't know if any of you ever read Geoff Wright's Nostalgia articles in the Visiter, but he writes some interesting stuff, with great illustrations. Below are 2 interesting articles written by Geoff about a bone house at St Cuthbert's. Apparently churchyards were often very small, making it difficult to find space for graves. Bodies were buried for long enough to decompose. They were then exhumed, the remains were cleaned, then moved to the bone house.

In the area that I live in native Indians used to do the same thing. There is a Huron ossuary where, as recorded by a French missionary in 1636, over 1,000 Huron people's bones were reburied in a pit.

Here are Geoff's articles:

Part 1 https://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/n...-part-13251073

Part 2 https://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/n...berts-13212429

Interesting articles. I do believe that St. Cuthbert's was built on a slight elevation because the tide used to come right up to it. St. Cuthbert's Church in York has a Charnel House situated under the quire. This church also underwent repairs in the 15th century and the Charnel House was maintained. It would be interesting to know if the same plans were used at St. Cuthbert's in Churchtown and whether this subterranean storage area exists. It is quite possible because the Church only has limited space.

[said]

Walked through Duke St Cemetery the other week and had a look at some of the old graves as I was passing through. It got me wondering :

1. Which is the oldest Graveyard in Southport (area) - presumably Crossens ?

and

2. What's the oldest date on a gravestone

There are plenty dated around 1830's but I'm sure there will be earlier dates than that ?

St. Cuthberts Church, Churchtown:

[Hamble]

I don't know if any of you ever read Geoff Wright's Nostalgia articles in the Visiter, but he writes some interesting stuff, with great illustrations. Below are 2 interesting articles written by Geoff about a bone house at St Cuthbert's. Apparently churchyards were often very small, making it difficult to find space for graves. Bodies were buried for long enough to decompose. They were then exhumed, the remains were cleaned, then moved to the bone house.

In the area that I live in native Indians used to do the same thing. There is a Huron ossuary where, as recorded by a French missionary in 1636, over 1,000 Huron people's bones were reburied in a pit.

Here are Geoff's articles:

Part 1 https://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/n...-part-13251073

Part 2 https://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/n...berts-13212429

Fascinating thank you.

[thediscovolante]

Walked through Duke St Cemetery the other week and had a look at some of the old graves as I was passing through. It got me wondering :

1. Which is the oldest Graveyard in Southport (area) - presumably Crossens ?

and

2. What's the oldest date on a gravestone

There are plenty dated around 1830's but I'm sure there will be earlier dates than that ?

just curious....is crossens graveyard older than st. cuthberts??..i presume its st. johns....in crossens...before the scarisbricks drained the marshlands,,,is there a site where we can view the history?..its all very interesting ,,,,
j

[said]

just curious....is crossens graveyard older than st. cuthberts??..i presume its st. johns....in crossens...before the scarisbricks drained the marshlands,,,is there a site where we can view the history?..its all very interesting ,,,,
j

Way, no way! St. John's Church was built in 1837 as a Chapel of Ease. St. Cuthbert's in Churchtown was built originally in 1571 and rebuilt somewhere around 1735. A Chapel of Ease is a church built where parishioners have difficulty in reaching the main church or it may be built for those living in mansion houses.

"A hospice or lodging house was sited in Crossens where travellers could rest after making the crossing. It is also believed to be the point at which 2,000 horsemen from a retreating Royalist force crossed the Ribble estuary following the battle of Marston Moor. They later joined the battle at Lathom Hall." Lancashire Geneology


A bit more information:
https://forebears.io/england/lancashire/southport/crossens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossens

and there is a bit more here:

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vc...vol3/pp230-236