Welcome to the Website of the Friends of Darwen Cemetery.
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Our 4th Find a Grave Day
Will be taking place at the Cross of Sacrifice in the Western Cemetery between 10.30am and 12.30pm on the 25th June 2022
This event is to help relatives find their long lost graves within the Cemetery.
Just bring along details of your family’s grave / plot and we will do our best to find its location (within the old Western Cemetery only) for you. Graves can become lost with the passage of time and hopefully this event is the answer to re-unite you with your family’s history.
If you don’t have the details?
Then contact Blackburn with Darwen Borough Cemeteries Office and they will help find out the plot details for you.
Then bring along these details to our “Find a Grave” event and we will do our best to find that lost plot.
Any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at contact@darwencemetery.org.uk
We look forward to seeing you!
For the Find a Grave Poster click on the below link.
FODC May 2022
Our Next General (Open to all) Meeting an AGM
Our next General meeting and our AGM will take place on Wednesday 29th June 2022.
It takes place at Darwen Heritage Centre , Holker House, Railway Road, Darwen BB3 2RG with a 7pm start.
This meeting is open to anybody who wishes to find out what we have managed to achieve over the last 12 months and look forward to our thoughts and plans for the future.
Come and meet the Trustees of the FODC
Everybody is Welcome !!
FODC May 2022
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
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Commonwealth War Grave Dedication Service
On Saturday 26th February the Friends of Darwen Cemetery held a dedication service for the for the placement of the new Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones for Private John Farnhill and Private Squire Haworth.
Between 30 and 40 attended the service on a clear and fine Saturday morning in the Western Cemetery, the service started with the laments played by Gordon Smith starting his walk from on top of the former Non Conformist Chapel site.
Thank you to Revd Terence Young for conducted the service, John East for his reading and Liz Marsland from the CWGC for the reading of the poem “can you remember”.
We then moved to each of the graves to read the testaments, for the grave of Private John Farnhill which is in section 5 in the Cemetery, was read by Albert Gavagan (John’s great nephew)
and for the testament for Private Squire Haworth which is in section B in the Cemetery, was read by Liz Rutherford from Central URC.
The two headstones were placed in the Cemetery by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission during December 2021.
FODC January 2022
Commonwealth War Grave Dedication Service
For Squire Haworth & John Farnhill on Saturday 26th February 2022 at 10.15am
A special Dedication Ceremony, arranged by the Friends will take place on Saturday 26th February 2022 for the War Graves of Squire Haworth and John Farnhill which are the latest graves to be erected by the Commonwealth War Commission during December last year
The service will start at the World War One Memorial Wall in the Western Cemetery at 10.15 am for a 10.30 am start
Everybody welcome!
FODC January 2022
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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
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.