All Saints Churchyard, Hindley, Lancashire

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Hindley, Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom

Contents 1 General Information 2 History 3 More Information 3.1 Disambiguation

General Information

All Saints' Churchyard (The Old Hindley Cemetery)

"There has been a Church on this site since 1641.

Interred in the ground around the church are the

remains of former inhabitants of Hindley along

with the remains of a soldier from the Civil War.

The Churchyard was originally the Cemetery for the

township of Hindley prior to the one being opened on Castle Hill.

All the land to the rear of the Church has been consecrated for further burials."

[From the signboard at the entrance]

Address: Chapel Fields Lane, Hindley, Lancashire. WN2 3QS

Coordinates: 53.53411, -2.57071

History

The graveyard surrounds the site which has been home to All Saints' Church (formerly Hindley Chapel) since 1641 and the first recorded burial was for a soldier, probably an early victim of the English Civil War:

1642 Dec 11 An unknown souldier beinge a stranger slaine Dec 9

It served as the cemetery for the population of Hindley before the town cemetery opened in 1880 and so burials were not restricted to the congregation of the Church of England. The burial registers record entries where no Anglican minister was in attendance and may be noted as such events as Romanist, Papist and Silent Funerals.

Many of the older headstones in the graveyard were removed in the 1960s and the area has been grassed over. The graves themselves have been left in place.

Most of the 62 victims of the 1868 Hindley Green Colliery Expolosion were buried in the graveyard, 40 of them being interred on 30th November, 1868.

The graveyard includes two Commonwealth War Graves:

First World War - Second Lieutenant JOSEPH FLITCROFT, Royal Garrison Artillery

Died 02 November 1918, 26 years old (Grave 1302).

Second World War - Sapper JOHN EDWIN WRIGHT, Service Number: 1877032. 236 Field Coy, Royal Engineers. Died 06 September 1940, 37 years old. (Grave 33).

More Information

• All Saints Churchyard - Burials (Profiles)
• All Saints' Churchyard at Find A Grave

Burial Records

• Burial transcriptions for the years 1698-1948 can be found on the Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerks Register.
• From the Genuki Website on 23 Jan 2023:
  • Bishop's Transcriptions for burials in the years 1722-1844 (Ref: DRL 2/516-519) and 1876-1879 (Ref:DRL 2/516-519) are held on microfilm at Lancashire Record Office
  • Register Transcripts for burials in the years 1642-1814 are held in a printed format (Ref LPRS138) byt Lancashire Record Office and in the form of a book (volume 138) by Lancashire Parish Register Society along with another book (volume 176) which covers the years 1813-1841

See Also:

All Saints' Church, Hindley Website - see "History" and "Pictures" sections.

Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerks - All Saints, Hindley

Disambiguation

Those buried in the graveyard would only have recognised the location as being in Lancashire, as it was for hundreds of years. The change to Greater Manchester is a modern administrative change which occurred long after the graveyard was closed and as with all other administrative areas could be subject to change again at any time in the future.