QR Codes – Cemetery Chapels

THE THREE CHAPELS IN THE CEMETERY

In the Western Cemetery once stood 3 Memorial Chapels, a Church of England, a Roman Catholic and a Non Conformist Chapel

Old Map showing the locations of the Chapels in the Cemetery
Old Map showing the locations of the Chapels in the Cemetery with indication of the Chapels

These were all in the old part of the Cemetery and were built when the Cemetery was opened in 1861

As far as we are aware the Chapels were used until the 1970’s from what we understand the Church of England Chapel and Roman Catholic Chapels were demolished in the 1970’s and the Non Conformist was demolished in the early 1980’s

The Church of England Chapel

Church of England Chapel taken from the Grave Plot Map for Section H
Photograph of the Church of England Chapel
Photograph from a different angle taken from Cemetery Road between the North and South Lodges

The Roman Catholic Chapel

Roman Catholic Chapel taken from the Grave Plot Map for Section D
Photograph of the Roman Catholic Chapel
Photograph of the Roman Catholic Chapel found in the work of Howard Peters.

I came across this image of a Chapel when I was looking at a number of press cutting we have at the Heritage Centre that relate to the work of Howard Peters.

Anyone from Darwen of a certain age will recall that Howard Peters had a regular page in the Darwen News on items of “yesterday.” Some of the article feature in his column were relative small and something there was the odd photo – included this one.

Apart from saying it was a recently demolished chapel there was no other information.
I think it has a look of the R/C Chapel.

Tony Foster  September 2019

Non Conformist Chapel

Non Conformist Chapel taken from the Grave Plot Map for Section A
Zoomed in Photograph of the Non Conformist Chapel taken from the below photograph
Photograph of the Non Conformist Chapel taken from the Solders Section in the new part of the Cemetery

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 !!!

April 2021