The Refuge and the Graveyard

On such a beautiful Manchester day what could be more wonderful to blog about than its stunning churches and surrounding landscape. That’s right today’s blog is all about graveyards...

Leonard Shaw’s Grave stone, St Paul’s Church, Kersal Moor

 

A few years ago I made the trip across to St. Paul’s Church in Salford to visit the grave of our founder. Although rather overgrown, it is taken care of by the wonderful people at its Churchyard Maintenance group. Next to Leonard and Annie’s grave is another headstone dedicated to some of the children who had sadly passed away at the Manchester Homes.

It is a sad but unsurprising circumstance that our books contain several references to children who died at a young age. Most prevalent conditions included consumption and pneumonia, which were common place in the slums at that period. Some of the children were buried by their relatives but for those without, the charity had purchased a plot within Wesleyan Methodist Cemetery, Cheetham Hill. This cemetery was opened in 1834 and closed in 1966. In 2003, badly neglected, it was purchased by a building company and a Tesco shop was eventually built on the land. Most of the 20,000 graves were dug up and removed to a mass grave at Bury Cemetery. These would have included most of the Refuge children who were buried at this site.

Orphan Home Admission

John was one of those children. He entered the orphan street homes on George Street in 1879 at the age of nine, having lost both of his parents. John spent the next ten years of his life in several of the Refuge homes, eventually leaving the Working Lad’s Home to go into his own lodgings. At the age of 25 he succumbed to consumption at Salford Royal Hospital. Despite no longer being in one of the Homes the charity interred him in their own grave. 

However old he was, he was still one of their own.