Pte Alex Done: The first soldier
buried in Darwen Cemetery
THERE are almost a hundred war graves in the two
Darwen cemeteries, most of them marking the last resting place of members of the armed forces who died during or soon after the Great War.
Of course, hundreds of Darwen soldiers, sailors and airmen died in that conflict, the first in which combatants were killed on an industrial scale.
Most are buried where they fell, in corners of foreign fields. Nearly all the ones interred at Darwen died back home from their wounds, disease or sickness.
The first burial here took place just four months after Britain mobilised on August 4, 1914. Private Alexander Done, who lived in Lord Street and who had married Sarah Turner that June in Railway Road Methodist Church, was a reservist and joined his regiment, the Loyal North Lancashires, at Preston the morning following mobilisation.
For the Full Story click on this link
Click on the below link to see the Plan of Private Alex Done in Section 2
Plan of A Done Grave Section 2
Harold Heys: October 2011.
A longer feature on Alex Done, written by Harold, is in the November issue of Lancashire Magazine.
A true champion of Darwen
Unveiling: Sunday, October 9 at 2pm
Darwen emerged slowly from a scattering of smallholdings and farms to
became a village and then a thriving town. A lot of good men - and women - gave their time and their money over the years towards keeping it firmly on the map as an industrious and thriving community.
One man more than most - Eccles Shorrock, who built the magnificent India Mill and its world-famous chimney.
Shorrock, who live for most of his life at Low Hill, Bury Fold, was a great benefactor to the town. He was to the fore when Darwen was crippled by the cotton famine 150 years ago, but his efforts eventually led to bankruptcy and a breakdown and he spent his last few years in an asylum in Edinburgh. He died in 1889 and his loss was described in the "Darwen News" as "a merciful release."
Eccles Shorrock was buried in the family vault in Darwen's old cemetery, close to the mound on which the Non-conformist chapel once stood. But such was the stigma that mental illness once had the grave of one of the great Darweners was not marked with even a modest headstone.
Thankfully, these days that stigma is being swept away and caring communities and families and the NHS do their best to help people with mental problems.
Monday, October 10 marks World Mental Health Day and on the previous afternoon the Friends of Darwen Cemetery will unveil a headstone to mark the contribution that Eccles Shorrock made to the town and especially his legacy of India Mill whose elegant chimney can be seen through the cemetery trees away to the north.
India Mill have made a donation to the headstone and Blackburn with Darwen Council's mental health department have made a similar donation from the funds they have set aside for World Mental Health Day.
It was at noon on a cold and windswept Tuesday in early October 1889 that Eccles Shorrock was laid to rest. The funeral was strictly private but hundreds of local folk lined the route to Darwen Cemetery from Low Hill and thronged the cemetery entrance.
There was a hearse, two carriages with his widow and eight children, and two private carriages of their friends the Huntingtons. Four of the Shorrock servants acted as bearers and the interment followed a short service in the nearby Nonconformist Chapel.
On Sunday, October 9 at 2pm the chairman of the Friends, Coun. John East, will introduce proceedings and Tony Foster and I will talk briefly about the life and death of Eccles Shorrock and the history of the family vault. The Rev Geoff Tolley will dedicate the headstone and the Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen. Coun Karimeh Foster will unveil it.
HAROLD HEYS September 2011
Mr Joseph Turner
Joseph Turner was born in Manchester on 15.5.1855.
His obituary in the Goole Times states that he came from a family whose members had been involved in paper-making for many generations, and indeed, the 1841 lists his grandfather, also Joseph, working as a paper-maker at Stretford, as is his father John on the 1851 census.
For the full story click on this link
Tony Foster April 2011
Greater Love Hath No Man ...
It was just a few days before Christmas, 1917, when three local lads decided on an afternoon walk on to the moors to the south -west of Darwen after Sunday School at St Barnabas'.
It was both adventurous and dangerous for they set off in the face of the first flurries and swirls of the most severe blizzard the town had seen for years.
All three were found dead in the snow drifts during the next few days of frantic searching by police and volunteers.
It was a tragic story made even more poignant by the revelation of a selfless act of courage by 16 year-old Ralph Bolton...
For the full story click on this link
Harold Heys
April 2011
The Place Family
The first section to be worked on by the Friends of Darwen Cemetery in their first year (2010) was Section C. One of the graves in Section C is that of Edith Bury (nee Place), her husband Edward Bury and one of their daughters Sarah Elizabeth.
Edith was the Great Grandmother of one of our members Ann Stokes and Edith
died on the 16th May 1907.
For the full story click on this link
Edward Bury, Edith (Place) Bury with their
Youngest Son Frederick Robinson Bury,
Ann's 'maternal' great grandparents
and grandfather.
© Ann Stokes
March 2011
A man who devoted his life
to God and his parish
If you didn't know, you would never guess at the humble beginnings of the
Catholic Church in Darwen. It was long before the building of St Joseph's and
St Edward's. It was on the steep hill at Red Earth in a building which is now ...the Black Horse pub.
For the full story click on this link
Fr Desiderius Vandenweghe Grave
Harold Heys
March 2011
The lady vanishes
Do you believe in ghosts or in the supernatural? It's not a question I like to ask of anyone; I like to steer well away from the topic. But as I was talking to cemetery supervisor Billy Briggs the other morning about clearing some paths.
For the full story click on this link
Billy Briggs.
Harold Heys
March, 2011
Unveiling of the Great War Cross
NEXT time you walk or drive into the cemetery, have a closer look at the Cross
of Sacrifice which is just inside the grounds behind the north lodge and close
to the short stone wall that marks the first boundary of the cemetery.
It's very impressive.
For the full story click on this link
HAROLD HEYS
March 2011
The Rev. Philip Graham
William Dewhurst
