Weaste Cemetery
A biography of a community
Salford City Council and Friends of the Cemeteries
Music played – A heritage production
Person one
Fear no more the heat o' the sun;
Nor the furious winter's rages,
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages;
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney sweepers come to dust.
‘Fear no More’,
Poem by William Shakespeare
Music
Person one
Cemeteries are important places, often they are avoided as they are associated with
death, but if you look at a cemetery another way, it’s not death with they are
concerned but remembrance, remembrance of communities long gone and of
achievements great and small.
Music
Person one
Weaste cemetery is an unparalleled historical ecological resource, come and see.
Music
Person one
A short walk from Eccles New road lies a valuable site full of interest. Weaste
cemetery is not only a place to commemorate loved ones we have lost, but also a
unique resource for the community. Within the 39 acres of grounds we can find
monuments to important historical figures, insights into what mattered to people in
days gone by and relics of old Salford’s country side.
Cemeteries are primarily places of reflection and remembrance and we must try to
behave respectfully as we discover the history and ecology present here.
Weaste cemetery is grade II listed, which means the historical value of the site is
recognised nationally, inside the cemetery are five listed monuments of particular
importance, but even the grave stones which have not been listed have their stories
to tell.
When you walk down the main path in the cemetery, you come across a grass
covered roundabout which are two headstones; one commemorates the lives of
soldiers killed in the First World War, the other;
Music
Person two
On the night of the 19 December 1854, 22 year old Private Norman was placed on a
single sentry duty some distance in front of the other soldiers in the White Horse
ravine, post of much danger and requiring much vigilance.
The Russian enemy soldiers were 300 yards in front of him, three Russians advance
under cover of brushwood with the purpose of patrolling the area.
“Russian’s speaking”
Private William Norman singlehandedly took two of them prisoner, without alarming
the other enemy soldiers.
Person one
Over 150 years ago, Great Britain, France and Turkey joined forces to prevent
Russia from taking over, what are now parts of the Ukraine; the bloody and
desperate battles of the Crimean war were the result.
William Norman was awarded the highest and most prestigious military honour for
his conduct in the war. The Victoria Cross is given for outstanding bravery in the face
of the enemy.
Private Norman died in 1896, and was buried in Weaste cemetery, but he didn’t have
as headstone marking his grave, the situation was rectified in 2003 when a
headstone paid for by Private Normans regiment was erected in the cemetery.
William Norman is not the only Crimean war veteran commemorated in the
cemetery. Of the many great and fierce battles in that war, one of the most famous is
the battle of Balaclava, of which the Charge of the Light Brigade was and infamous
part. Four of the men who survived the charge are buried in Weaste.
Person two
“Half and league, half a league,
half a league onward,
all in the valley of death
rode the six hundred.
Forward the Light Brigade
charge for the guns, he said”
Into the Valley of Death
rode the six hundred.”
Charge of the Light Brigade
Poem by Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
Person one
Ferdinand Stanley would have galloped into the valley after his comrades to see only
a few left standing, an action of real courage.
Survivors of the charge
Perhaps Ferdinand Stanley was one of these men, he died in 1898.
This is the river Irwell which divides the centres of Salford and Manchester before
becoming part of the Manchester ship canal to the south west.
Mark Addy was born in 1838 and although he couldn’t swim he was a master
oarsman, he helped his father run a boat hire company on the banks of the river and
made his first rescue at the age of 13, when he waded into the river to drag a small
boy to safety. He made over 50 such rescues and his courage was rewarded in 1878
when Queen Victoria presented him with the rare Albert Medal. Mark Addy died in
1890 from swallowing some of the heavily polluted waters of the river. He’s
commemorated not only in the cemetery with a monument which was paid for by the
public, but also a bridge and a pub on the banks of the Irwell, which bear his name.
Just down the path from the Addy monument is the tombstone of a man whose
name is famous even today.
The Halle orchestra is the longest established symphony orchestra in Britain and has
its home at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Charles Halle was born in Germany
in 1819 but lived in Paris and London, before moving to Manchester. He despaired of
the poor quality of musical life in the city and took steps to improve it. Forming his
own orchestra and helping to form the royal Manchester College of music.
Halle wanted everyone to enjoy the improved music in Manchester and he always
ensured that cheaper tickets were available so that everyone could hear the
orchestra play. His monument commemorates his life in music with angels playing
harps.
In the oldest part of the cemetery is perhaps the most imposing monument of them
all, Joseph Brotherton was the first to be buried in Weaste cemetery and it was
thanks to him and his campaigning that the cemetery existed at all.
Brotherton was born in 1783 and worked his way up in his father’s cotton factory
becoming a master spinner. He took over the business on his father’s death 1809 at
the age of 26 and had made enough money in the next 10 years to mean that he
could retire at the age of 36. But retiring for Brotherton did not mean doing nothing it
meant campaigning for his beliefs and for the people of Salford.
Brotherton was Salford’s first MP before this time Salford and other large
manufacturing city’s such as Birmingham and Manchester didn’t have representation
in parliament instead power was concentrated in the hands of a relatively few
aristocrats and land owners in the south.
As an MP he campaigned for improvements to children’s working hours, limiting
them to 10 hours works per day. He was also passionate about education and
helped put together laws which allowed local authorities to open museums and
libraries. He championed the rite of working people to have access to open spaces
and was one of the prime movers in Salford opening Peel Park, considered to be the
world’s first public parks in which was the country’s first public library.
Brotherton had other important interests, he was a founding member of the
Vegetarian Society, which now has members all over the world, and he also wrote
many books and pamphlets about religion.
When Joseph Brotherton died, the whole city went into mourning. He was buried in
the cemetery that he had helped to create through his campaign for municipal burial
grounds. The people of Salford showed their gratitude to him after his death by
raising money for the erection of the monument in his memory, in fact so much
money was raised that sufficient remained to buy books for the libraries that he had
been so instrumental in creating.
A bronze statue of Brotherton now stands gazing at the river Irwell, on Bridge Street.
It’s important to remember that every gravestone in Weaste cemetery represents a
live lived and a loved one lost even the smallest gravestone can tell us something
about the person who’s buried there.
We can also learn something about the feelings of the people who are left behind, by
looking and the symbols and inscriptions on the gravestones.
“Oak and Ivy leaf = faith and eternal life”
“Rose = sorrow, love”
“Hands shake = farewell to life on earth”
“Grapevine = Christ and the Church”
“Draped Urn = mortality”
Salford 1848 map
It may be hard to believe but only 150 years ago the city of Salford was mainly
farmland, at Weaste cemetery we are lucky to have within meadows of the same
grassland that once surrounded the cemetery.
Salford 1896 map
Once the cemetery was built the land inside its walls was not used for farming and
so it’s not been treated with modern farming chemicals.
This cemetery grassland provides an untainted for a wide range of flowers to grow
and gives shelter food and breeding grounds to many species of animal life.
The cemetery acts as a stepping stone of open space for wildlife to cross the built up
areas of the city. Some creatures such as the ermine moth breed extensively in the
woodland areas at the back of the cemetery. It is an indication of improvement in the
air quality in the area that lichens can be found on many of the gravestones.
Music
The Victorians like Joseph Brotherton who built this cemetery thought of it as a
garden of remembrance a public space like other civic parks and gardens, Weaste
cemetery is a place for reflection, for relaxation, for respect and to read the
biography of a community.
Music
End Credits
Sincere thanks to the following for their assistance during the making of this film;
Royal Fusiliers Museum, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
HM Tower of London
J P Kelleher
Bolton Schools Boy’s division, Russian Department;
Mr C A J Pownall
Mrs Vera Tymchyshyn
James Aspinall
James Baglow
Michael Carroll
Chris Nott
Joint Services College Camberley;
Aaron Cripps
Salford Local History Library
Tim Ashworth
Halle Concerts Society
Eleanor Roberts
The Vegetarian Society
Visitors to the cemetery
Harry Riley
Jackie Dagnall
Images used with the kind permission of the copyright holders
Greening Greater Manchester
Salford City Council and Friends of the Cemeteries
2006