the history of Longton Cemetery

the history of Longton Cemetery

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Historian Fred Hughes writes....

Diane McDaid’s neighbours won’t be calling round for a festive drink this Christmas; she says they’ve already got enough spirits. The owner of a popular Stoke on Trent restaurant Diane has plenty of friends who are very welcome to call for a drop of cheer; it’s just the neighbour’s who won’t be getting an invite. And the reason for this parsimonious inhospitality is simply that Diane’s neighbours are all dead.

“Earlier this year I bought Longton Cemetery Lodge from the council,” she tells me. “I fell in love with the mock-Tudor detached building as soon as I saw it. I suppose living in a cemetery would put most people off but my passion is restoring and changing the use of public buildings. For instance my conversion of the old chapel in Town Road Hanley into a restaurant gave new life to a building facing demolition. In renovating Longton Cemetery Lodge I’m merely bringing the past into the present. It’s exciting.”

Longton Cemetery - Registrar's office

Diane’s new home was built in 1877, the year Longton cemetery opened.

“Its first occupant was a chap name Joseph Ashworth who was appointed registrar and accountant by Longton Borough Council,” says historian Steve Birks. “Joseph, a bachelor age 47 and his housekeeper sister Mary, age 49 and also single, came from Yorkshire, but little is known of their previous lives.”

According to the council minutes Ashworth had an annual salary of £100 with the house added rent free. Gas and other services were also included but exclusively for the office. Victorian prudence no doubt influenced the Ashworth’s to spend most of their time in the office, a pleasant sun-filled room by the front entrance.

“I love the office,” says Diane. “Even the original wardrobe safe is still here. Nothing has been altered from those times and even now I expect to be greeted by a wing-collared registrar wearing a morning coat and a black top hat. It’s as though I’m living inside Victorian history.”

What about the neighbours, I ask.

“Oh I don’t anticipate trouble from them,” she laughs.

Longton cemetery off Spring Garden Road is typical Victorian parkland laid-out in a rectangle of about 21 acres extended four times to accommodate the increase in burials.

“The ground was originally owned by Mr J Edwards-Heathcote, a member of the family that, along with the Duke of Sutherland, seemed to own most of Longton. But he didn’t give his land away. Instead he charged Longton Council £500 an acre thereby pocketing a cool ten grand. All this took place when local boroughs were being compelled to provide new burial space for its dead. Until 1650 most parishioners were buried in vaults inside the church or in land surrounding them known as churchyards. But when the churchyards became overfull, private cemeteries became a popular option. Except for the poor whose population in the new town centres was burgeoning rapidly,” says Steve.

The first public burials were tested in Norwich in 1819. But it was slow to take hold as people feared detachment from church proximity. However, by the middle of the 19^th century urban churchyards were so crowded and polluted that legislation was introduced to compel local authorities to provide land for public burials. London’s Metropolitan Interment Act of 1850 was the first, soon to be extended across the country in 1853.

“In 1860 Hanley became the Potteries’ first authority to comply with this legislation,” says Steve, “Longton followed seventeen years later. This was probably because of the unavailability of public land and the tricky negotiations with other landowners before accepting Edwards-Heathcote’s transaction of convenience. Anyway the land was divided up into partitions of religious belief. Five acres was allotted as the Church of England burial-ground. Beside this was the Nonconformists’ plot. And some other part was set aside for the Roman Catholics. The superb listed central chapel is a joy to look at and was designed locally and built by a Walsall company with timber frames and Welsh slate roofs.”

Longton Cemetery - Chapels

There are actually two chapels beneath one roof; Nonconformist and Anglican. Each has three bays either side of an arched entrance beneath an impressive tower designed with two stages of ornate timber panels and a small spire. The main entrance has segmental archway gables with stained glass quatrefoil windows and decorative timber panelling.

Grave memorial of Matthew Wardhaugh

“The surrounding land is relatively flat,” Steve adds. “But possibly because of its late construction many of Longton’s Victorian notables are buried elsewhere. Nevertheless the grave of Matthew Wardhaugh is here. He was a Victorian theatre proprietor who built the Royal Victoria Theatre in Berry Bank, Stafford Street, now called The Strand. He wrote and performed at least 50 plays. Most popular was his last play, My Little Wife alternatively known as Nuts to Crack. Yes, it’s true!”

the names of those buried in other burial grounds
and those not recovered

Another fine memorial is the granite tribute to the 64 miners killed in the Mossfield Colliery explosion in 1889. The remains of 45 miners are buried here together. Another 14 are buried elsewhere. But perhaps the saddest are the five names listed beneath the simple stone-carved valediction ‘not recovered’.

more on Longton Cemetery

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