Blackley Cemetery is a large, municipal

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

situated within the northern suburbs of the city of

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, and is owned, operated and maintained by

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been re ...

. The cemetery and crematorium complex is located on Victoria Avenue in the district of Blackley. It was opened in 1953 on land that was previously a golf course. The cemetery contains Blackley Crematorium, the only

crematorium A crematorium, crematory or cremation center is a venue for the cremation of the Death, dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a ...

facility operated by

(the other crematorium in the city, the Manchester Crematorium at Southern Cemetery, being an independent company), opened in 1959. The crematorium features 3 chapels – one large, central chapel, with twinned smaller chapels to the eastern and western sides of the building. Until 2022, the crematory area of the crematorium was equipped with three 'Newton'-model cremators, installed by the Furnace Construction Co. Ltd. of

Hyde, Cheshire Hyde is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county boundaries of Cheshire, and became part of Greater Manchester in 1974. The built-up area as defined by the Office for Nati ...

. There are now two FTIII cremators supplied by Facultatieve Technologies of

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. The cemetery was, at one time, well known for having problems with

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...

, with surface water being problematic during burials and visitation to grave sites. The city has worked to rectify this situation in recent years, with the installation of ground drainage schemes being completed in 2009. The ground drainage scheme has opened up new areas for the opening of new graves, in parts of the cemetery that were originally thought to be unusable. A currently unused area of the cemetery is to be developed into a

Natural Burial Natural burial is the interment of the body of a dead person in the soil in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition but allows the body to be naturally recycled. It is an alternative to burial methods and funerary customs. The body may be ...

area. This project is currently in the planning and problem-solving stage, and it is as yet unknown when the new burial area will be opened for use.

Notable burials

Buried here in the Non-Conformist section is

Ethel Carnie Holdsworth Ethel Holdsworth ( Carnie; 1 January 1886 – 28 December 1962) was a working-class British writer, feminist, and socialist activist from Lancashire. A poet, journalist, children's writer and author, she was the first working-class woman in Bri ...

(1886–1962), working-class writer, feminist, and socialist activist. In 1991, the remains of 63 executed prisoners (of which 45 were identifiable) that had been exhumed from unmarked graves in the

Strangeways Prison HM Prison Manchester is a Category A and B men's prison in Manchester, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It is still commonly referred to as Strangeways, which was its former official name derived from the area in which it is l ...

cemetery following rebuilding work at the prison, were cremated at Blackley Crematorium. The cremated remains were re-interred in two graves (plot C2710 and C2711) at the adjacent cemetery. They included the remains of the three

Manchester Martyrs The Manchester Martyrs () were three Irish Republicanism, Irish Republicans – William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien – who were Hanging, hanged in 1867 following their conviction of murder after an attack on a police van i ...

– who had been hung at the New Bailey Prison in

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

, Manchester on November 23, 1867 for the killing of a policeman. Blackley Crematorium was the venue for the funeral in 1994 of ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

'' actress

Doris Speed Doris Speed (3 February 1899 – 16 November 1994) was an English actress, best known for her role as landlady of the Rovers Return Inn, Annie Walker, on the British television soap opera ''Coronation Street''. Speed played this role from the p ...

. The grave of Corporal Clifford Haughton,

Royal Regiment of Fusiliers The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (often referred to as, "The Fusiliers") is an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Queen's Division. Currently, the regiment has two battalions: the 1st Battalion, part of the Regular Army, is an ...

and his wife and children stands in the cemetery. They were all killed by the IRA in 1974 in the

M62 coach bombing The M62 coach bombing, sometimes referred to as the M62 Massacre, occurred on 4 February 1974 on the M62 motorway in northern England, when a 25-pound (11 kg) Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb hidden inside the luggage locker o ...

, when a time bomb exploded on their coach en route to Catterick.

References

External links

* {{Cemeteries in England, state=collapsed Geography of Manchester Cemeteries in Manchester