Welcome to the Website of the Friends of Darwen Cemetery.
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Facebook
Look for the Friends of Darwen Cemetery and request to become a member of the Facebook Group.
Click on the Facebook Logo
Have a look in the 2022 News for news
http://www.darwencemetery.org.uk/2022-news/
PUBLIC NOTICE
REPARING GRAVES IN SECTION G
The Friends of Darwen Cemetery hope to start work on repairing headstone shortly. We would like to identify people who still tend a grave here and would be grateful if you could let us have your current contact details.
Please telephone the Cemetery Office on 01254 202021 and give them your details.
Headstones were repaired on Section C in 2011, Section B in 2012 and Section D1 in 2014 with funds raised by the Friends of Darwen Cemetery. Funds are now available to work on Section G
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer or supporter of the Friends of Darwen Cemetery, visit our website at
Or you can email
FODC May 2022
———————————————————————————————-
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
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.
The above photograph is one that has taken years to find, this is the Non Conformist Chapel which once stood on the large mound in the centre of the old Cemetery, a big thank you to Alan Walton and the Commonwealth War Commission for the photograph
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.