The one which will stay a mystery …………..

 Sometimes you have to accept that a story has run its course with no resolution.

Not that I expected to find out the identity of a certain Hampson whose gravestone was deposited in Walkden Gardens a long time ago.

It was part of a pile of memorial inscriptions which were taken from the old Brooklands cemetery and dumped in the park, later to be recycled ad edging and kerb stones.

I doubt I would have ever come across them and certainly not set off on the search for the identity of Hampson if Andy Robertson had taken a walk through the park.

And having set off through Walkden Gardens he photographed some of the lost stone inscriptions.

Most of them record the names of stone masons, who left their names on the small edging stones which formed the border of the grave plots.

But one inscription was much larger, leaving Andy to speculate that this was actually part of a gravestone, belonging someone called Hampson, who was buried in the old Brooklands cemetery.

Of course a walk around the cemetery would not reveal anything given that the Hampson gravestone was no longer where it had been so reverently placed, which led me to seek the help of Trafford Local Studies Centre and in particular Sonia Llewellyn the Local Studies Advisor, 

Sonia replied to my request with “We do hold a CD ROM listing memorial inscriptions in the old part of the cemetery, which was compiled by the Ashton and Sale History Society. 

If there is anyone I can look up for you, just let me know”.

And I did ask, and kindly Sonia sent over the results which offered up twenty headstones, recording the deaths and internment of 61 people.  

Not all were Hampsons, but those that weren’t, rested with Hampson’s.

The burials span the period from 1872 through to 1978, with the youngest an infant and the oldest aged 84, and contain a mix of “memorial language” from the conventional “departed this life” to the touching  “who sweetly fell asleep in Jesus”, and the intriguing reference to a Edward Hampson of Manchester, "late of Moscow”.

But sadly, I am no nearer identifying the memorial stone found by Andy, other than that it appears to have no other names or details, which raises the possibility that it belongs to none of the above.

Leaving me just to thank Sonia, and Andy.

Location; Walkden Gardens

Pictures; Walkden Gardens, 2020 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Trafford Local Studies Centre, https://www.trafford.gov.uk/residents/leisure-and-lifestyle/libraries/Local-Studies/Trafford-Local-Studies.aspx

When the mysteries keep coming …… stories from a municipal park

Now I am back in Walkden Gardens which is a place I have never visited and yet has begun to offer up some fascinating stories.*

All of which come courtesy of Andy Robertson who a week ago photographed a group of  stones, some of which were quite clearly taken from a cemetery.

The research took the story to a John Royle Whittick, stone carver, modeller and sculptor, of 8 Railway Street Altrincham and  Peter Spence, sculptor, stone and marble mason of 132 Hyde Road, Ardwick.

Of the two it was Mr. Spence who proved the easier to research.  He ended his days as a “master mason” and was buried in Philips Park Cemetery, which is long way from Walkden Gardens in Sale.  

B

But Barry Botherton from Friends of Walkden Gardens, offered up the explanation that "These stones are edging stones and kerbs that were removed from Brooklands Cemetery in Sale many years ago. 

They had been dumped in the Gardens and the Friends Group later reused them to make walls".**

And yesterday Andy went back and came across another three, all of which look to be promising research projects.  

Alas so far he “couldn't trace HOLDEN but HAMPSON might actually be a part of a gravestone and HILTON could be the ones on Barlow Moor Road opposite Southern Cemetery”.

Most mysteries can be solved.  

In the case of Holden and Hilton these will be the names of the stone mason’s who were commissioned to make the graves and added their names on the edging stones at the foot of the monuments.

But the stone bearing the name of Hampson might well be a gravestone.

I don’t have access to the records of Brooklands Cemetery, and there are 38,586 burials recorded there from September 1862 to November 1999, added to which Trafford’s online search service costs £89.

And while Manchester does also charge it offers a free limited search which is usually sufficient.

So I won’t be going down the route of looking Mr./Ms. Hampson, and there I think the search will stop, leaving me just fall back on a description of Sale and Brooklands cemetery, which according to one source, “is a mid-19th-century cemetery that was later extended twice, although only the original cemetery is registered by English Heritage. 

It has an informal layout of winding intersecting paths and surviving chapels, which are no longer in use. Other features include a Gothic Revival-style lodge and an underpass.

Plans were prepared in 1861 by architect William Wilson of Manchester and the cemetery was opened in 1862. It was extended in 1895 and again in the 20th century.

The cemetery contains a great density of notable 19th century and early 20th century monuments, in a wide variety of sizes, styles, and materials, and the graves of many notable local people”.***

Of course the question that remains is why did some end up in Walkden Gardens?  

I know that some parish graveyards and public cemeteries have in the past "dispensed" with old monuments but it does seem a poor reward for a family who paid for an eternal resting place.

Although it may be that Sale and Brooklands were merely following the practice of offering only a limited resting place, or simply those that ended up in the Gardens were damaged and beyond repair.

We shall see.

In the meantime, I find it interesting that all but one of the named stone masons were based in Manchester, but that is a story for another time.

Location; Walkden Gardens

Pictures, Walkden Gardens, 2020,from the collection of Andy Robertson, and Brooklands Cemetery, Sale, Scanned from a glass plate negative, date unknown, TL7772. courtesy of Trafford Local Studies Centre, https://apps.trafford.gov.uk/TraffordLifetimes/

* Hyde Road, Ardwick, and Railway Street, Altrincham ….. turn up in a small park in Sale … and the mystery is?, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=walkden+gardens

**Friends of Walkden Gardens, http://walkdengardens.co.uk/

***Sale and Brooklands Cemetery, Parks and Gardens, https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/sale-and-brooklands-cemetery