Welcome to the Website of the Friends of Darwen Cemetery.
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Remembrance Day Services 2021
Friday 12th November 2021 Service
Well Done to all who attended the FODC children’s poppy service in DARWEN Western Cemetery. Thank you to Terry Young for his ministry. To Richard’s Westheads daughter for helping with dedication of the bench in her dad’s honour marking his dedication to the cemetery & remembering his comrades by placing crosses on the graves – a tradition he has pasted onto FODC. Thank u to the students from DACA, DVHS,DAES their readings during the service. All the imaginative remembrance tributes on behalf of their schools. Finally thank to trustees of FOFC for organising a wonderful service once again.
some of the poppies laid on the Friday
Sunday 14th November 2021 Service
On the Sunday Service many of the local residents and Scout Groups attended, it was a beautiful morning unlike the rain during the Friday Service.
FODC November 2021
Find a Grave Day 27th November 2021
On Saturday 27th November we are holding our 3rd Find a Grave event, we will be based at the Whitehall Park Hut which is based in the Rose Garden within the Park, we start at 10.30 am until 1pm for further information see the image below.
Are you looking to get a new skill and help FODC in the Cemetery?
Grave Maintenance Scheme (Western Cemetery)
The Friends of Darwen Cemetery started the Grave Maintenance Scheme (GMS) back in 2013 and have refurbished nearly 50 graves over the years in the Western Cemetery.
If you would like to see more information click on the link below.
Sections in the Cemetery we are currently working on
The Friends of Darwen Cemetery over the last few years have worked on various sections in the cemetery to improve the look of the graves and the surrounding areas.
The current sections we are working on are:-
Section 2, Section A, Section K and Section 5A
If you would like more information on the work we are carrying out in these sections please email us at contact@darwencemetery.org.uk
FODC June 2021
We have some exciting news
After years of searching by Alan Walton we finally now have a photograph of the chapel that stood on the mound at the top of the cemetery.
We now have photos of all three chapels. it’s taken quite some time but we knew it had to be out their somewhere. photo taken in July of 1959. And found in the CWGC archives.
We thank The Commonwealth War Graves Commission for allowing us to use this photo.
Well done Alan !!!
FODC April 2021
Working Parties start again from Saturday 20th March 2021
FODC trustees have decided that the Saturday working parties are to restart again from Saturday 20th March 2021.
The working parties will be held with social distancing measures in place as our main responsibility is the health and safety of all that attends. FODC March 2021
Click here to see the Working Party Dates FODC Working Party Dates
To see what has been going on in the Cemetery click onto the 2020 News button above.
Brief History of the Cemetery
The Local Board of Health formed a Burial Board in 1858 to provide a public burial ground. Up to then the only burial grounds were the graveyards of the various places of worship. The long use of these graveyards, their limited area, and the growth of the town made it difficult to find space for new graves.
The Burial Board acquired land at Whitehall on the west of the Bolton road. The area was drained, fenced, and laid out into sections for Church of England, Nonconformist and Roman Catholic burials.
Mortuary Chapels were erected and the cemetery opened in June 1861. In 1876 further land was obtained, the combined area being about 20 acres. The western cemetery is really two cemeteries – the Old to the south and the New to the north.
Towards the end of the Second World War it was becoming obvious that a further burial ground was necessary and land was acquired on the opposite side of the main road. This became known, rather confusingly, as the New Cemetery and then as the Eastern Cemetery. Work was under way by 1945 and the land was consecrated within a year or so. The area was extended in the late 1970s.
Photograph of the two lodges at the entrance to the Western Cemetery.
Note the large Iron Gates which stood between the two Lodges, in between the two Lodges you can see the Church of England Chapel
A closer photograph of the Church of England Chapel that once stood in the Cemetery
This photograph shows the Roman Catholic Chapel that once stood in the Cemetery.
If you would like to see more history on the Cemetery click on the Research tab.
If you would like to see history of the Friends of Darwen Cemetery click on the FODC Timeline tab.