M24 Burials
Churchyard No2
Church Yard No2 lies on the lower ground to the East of the church. The burials here commenced in 1787 and unusually for a cemetery of this age, there has been little, if any disturbance to the stones.
Layout and Numbering
The graves are numbered in columns and Rows. Column 1 is furthest from the church and the rows are numbered from the South wall. As well as a column and row, parish records will show a 3rd number (Always 2) to indicate the cemetery. Therefore the first grave would be 1-1-2 and the next 1-2-2.
The column numbers are indicated on the coping stones of the South wall and run from 1 to 12, although column 12 only has two graves at the North end.
The North wall also has indications of row numbers, but the coping stones on this wall have been moved over the years and are therefore inaccurate.
The East wall has suffered a similar fate to the North wall. Various numbers appear on the coping stones and it appears that the columns were also numbered with every 10th number in full and just the last digit of numbers in between. (i.e. 9,10,1,2.....9,20,1,2...)
At the end of column 10 there is an additional inscription detailing the building of the wall around this yard.
Two previous sets of research are available in Middleton Library, both of these number the graves in a continuous line (north to south then south to north or vice versa), however 1 of these starts the numbering in the North East corner whist the other starts in the South West corner. These do not match either the parish records or the row numbers on the coping stones. Neither of these two sets of records allocate a number to an empty plot (or a plot where a stone was not found) so unknown plots are not recorded. There is an earlier set of research completed by John Owen, the Manchester antiquarian, and this follows a similar pattern, with only used plots numbered and the numbers running consecutively. At the present time, the search function will show Owen xxx for all burials in Yard 2. These will be adjusted to show the correct numbering in the near future.
Very few of the burials in this cemetery have the grave number recorded in the parish records, but using those that do, I was able to compare the records with the actual grave stones. This indicates that each row is numbered from the South Wall in a Northerly direction. Owen 7 is 12-51, 8 is 12-52 then 9 is 11-51.
The stone located at 12-3-2 predates the opening of Churchyard No2. it is probable that this stone was originally in Churchyard No1 and fell over the wall when Churchyard No1 was being relaid.
Aerial survey map
Over the years, some stones have slipped, so the yard was mapped by an aerial survey. Due to overhanging trees, some areas to the East were inaccessible, these areas are shaded pink on the plan below.
