Manchester General Cemetery On Winter Break until 2013

[Cancan]

Finally!!!!  some good weather for Sunday


Hope to see everyone!!!

[sezzle]

Totally peeved that I missed ya'll on Sunday, I got there late
Fingers crossed for this sunday x

[Luzzu]

Another Manchester Tragedy
(research courtesy of Rootschatters and MGCTP team members Beannie and BarbaraH)
41 year old, Martha Ann Carr was found dead at her house in Harpurhey on July 5th 1912.  She had been strangled.  When the police arrived, they found her husband, who they believed committed the offence, sitting in a dazed state staring at his wife who lay on the rug in front of the fire.  Two of the couple’s children, who were in the house at the time, raised the alarm by their screams.  It seems that her husband, James, had been in poor health and unemployed for some time.  Financially they were desperate and his former colleagues at Cawley’s bleach works in Blackley had made a collection which had raised more than £8.  Just before Martha Ann was found dead, a workmate was on his way to the house to give them the money. James Carr, a finisher’s labourer, aged 44, was subsequently charged with murder.  Evidence was given that he was a sober, industrious man who had lived happily with his wife, however, he had been out of work for some time and suffered from depression.  When the case came to Crown Court in November 1912 the jury was dismissed as Mr Carr had been certified insane and had been sent to an asylum.  Martha Ann was interred at Manchester General Cemetery on July 11th 1912.

John Alexander Moss (1808-1867) and Mary Moss (1812-1897)
(with thanks to Rootschatter, Dotty, for her research assistance)
The inscription reads  “John A Moss, who departed this life, April 9th 1867, Aged 59 years.He was for 13 years Master of the Borough of Salford Ragged & Industrial School. Also Mary MOSS, Wife of the above, who died March 27th 1897, Aged 85 years”
Salford Ragged and Industrial School opened on August 14th 1854 in the former Salford Workhouse building at the junction of Broughton Road and Garden Lane.  John Alexander Moss and his wife, Mary, were appointed Master and Matron of the School.  They had previously worked at Mr Ashworth’s British School at Egerton, Bolton. Industrial schools were seen as a tool for “drying up the sources of juvenile vagrancy and criminality and for training young outcasts of society in the fear of God”.  Children, of both sexes, who were living on the streets of Salford, unprotected, were to be brought to the school and “raised from their degraded state”.  They received instruction in the scriptures, useful knowledge and industrial training.  As nearly all the scholars would have been previously dependent upon begging, the schools also provided a daily supply of good, plain food.

Luzzu 

[Luzzu]

If you are searching for a burial at Manchester General Cemetery and your ancestor is buried in “Public Ground”, he or she may be buried in the area pictured .  There are several public areas within the Cemetery but we believe the burials identified on the Manchester City Council burials website by a long number, which in effect is the burial date in reverse, i.e. 18640821, will be buried in this area.  The location is at the back of the Cemetery and at the moment it is separated by a wire fence from the Consecrated section.  On the Cemetery plan which is currently available, the area photographed is shaded in black.

http://www.twbaird.co.uk/cemplans/harpurhey.html

Public graves containing large numbers of burials, i.e., Unknown 97 containing 120 burials, we think are situated in other parts of the Cemetery and we will post pictures in due course.

The Public Ground section in the photographs contains public/common graves.  There may or may not have been a payment for a burial in this area as any public/common grave could also contain the remains of paupers.

A common grave was a general term for a grave belonging to the owners of the cemetery in which no private burial rights existed.  Common graves were filled over the course of a few days with the bodies of unrelated people who died during that period and who could not afford a private grave (although there would have been a payment for a burial in a common grave).  Sometimes (but not often) there would be a simple inscription (name, date of death and age) on a flat gravestone. This would depend on what the family could afford at the time.

Any common grave would probably contain some paupers as well.  A pauper was defined as a penniless person and the cost of their burial was borne by the Board of Guardians (i.e. public expense). The term "paupers grave" was never used officially and they aren’t identified as such in the burial registers.

We haven’t been able to work in this section as yet due to the prevalence of Japanese knotweed, which is being treated by Manchester City Council.

Its also worth mentioning that some of the people buried in this area have been commemorated on memorials on family plots in the Non Conformist and Consecrated sections of the Cemetery.  Presumably when the person who was buried in Public Ground died, the family were unable to afford a private grave but when this was purchased  in later years, family members buried in common graves have been remembered on the headstone of the private grave even though their remains are buried elsewhere in the Cemetery.

Cancan & Luzzu 

[Cancan]

  Sunday 19th August 


Hopefully the date above is the next Groundwork Date

Weather Permitting!

Drop me a line if you can make it!

[Cancan]

Finally a decent Day for Weather!

Popped down to the Cemetery today and managed to get a few things done.  But no uncovering.

The ground is absolutely water logged.

The workmen have been pulled out of the cemetery that were erecting the gravestones as it was deemed to dangerous for them due to the sodden ground.  They will of course be going back when the weather and conditions get better.  The difference it has made to some sections of the Cemetery can be seen, there now looks a lot more Gravestones, where before it looked a little sparse in sections.

The Wall of the Cemetery which runs round the side of the Cemetery on the old Cemetery Road is presently being re-built.  So, this has made another improvement.

So, fingers crossed, if the weather is kind to us, we are hoping to get back to some uncovering of flat stones. 

It has been a bit of a disastrous year for uncovering due to all the rain.
So, hoping possibly for some better weather between now and the end of November to get back to  uncovering.

We are asking for as much time as anyone can spare to help us to catch up with uncovering.

Will be checking the weather all week with fingers crossed!!!

Hoping to see everyone next week!!

Cancan

Next Ground Work Date:  Sunday 9th September 2012

[sezzle]

Are we on for tomorrow ladies? Xx

[Cancan]

Hi Sezzle,

Yes we are there tomorrow!!  Finally some sunshine!! (Remember the juice!!)

Not digging, only doing some re-mapping!!

Will arrive abt 10am and we are finishing abt 1.30, as some of us have other commitments for later.

Poor beannie got a massive blister last week!! and has just told me she got bit on the foot by a nasty bug!!!   Boots for everyone!!

Will be great to you!!!

Cancan

[Barbara.H]

Hi all, hope you had a good 'do' yesterday!

Been on holiday last two weeks in August and then off to family party in Wiltshire yesterday.

Poor Beannie! It seems like whenever I've been able to go this year its been rained off   

Hoping to join you next week if poss

  Barbara