Your are in:
Home
>
Medlock Valley Places
>
Philips Park Cemetery
Philips Park Cemetery
Introduction
Philips Park Cemetery is adjacent to Philips Park, on the northern side of the River
Medlock which separates them. Like Philips Park, it has been listed by English
Heritage as a grade II site on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special
Historic Interest in England – it was added to the register in
July 2002, one year after its neighbour.
History
Philips Park Cemetery was Manchester’s first municipal public cemetery when
it opened in 1866, though work was in fact not completed on its grounds and
structures until the following year. Manchester Corporation had held an open
competition in 1863 for the design of a cemetery to the north of the River
Medlock; from forty entries submitted, Manchester
architects Paull and Ayliffe’s designs for the buildings and William Gay of Bradford’s
designs for the grounds were chosen. Manchester Corporation recruited unemployed cotton mill workers to
carry out the laying out and planting work.
The site
was divided into separate areas for different denominations, with the largest
portion (8 hectares) at the western end, nearest to town and the main entrance,
for the Church of England. Dissenters, or non-conformists, had the 5.5 hectare
centre portion, and Roman Catholics a 3 hectare portion at the eastern
end. Each portion had its own mortuary
chapel, all built in the gothic revival style but to different designs. A
fourth mortuary chapel and burial area, for Jews, was later added. Of the four
mortuary chapels, only the Anglican chapel now remains.
The bodies laid to rest in Manchester’s
first municipal public cemetery did not all rest easily. Early in the cemetery’s
history, in the summer of 1872, torrential rains caused floods that disinterred
many bodies, carrying them along the river. In response to the
flooding, work began on the red terracotta-brick channel, which has since
carried the river between the park and adjoining cemetery.
There is more information about the 1872 floods, including a song written and published at the time, in the Medlock Valley History section of this website.
Things
to see
In addition
to the listed status of the cemetery itself, four of Paull and Ayliffe’s
original gothic revival-style structures are listed as grade II monuments: the
gates and piers of the main entrance at the junction of Alan Turing Way and
Briscoe Lane, the cemetery office and lodge to the north of the main entrance,
and the Anglican mortuary chapel which is sited on high ground 190m north-east
of the main entrance.
The
cemetery also contains a number of graves of historic interest. These include
two survivors of the 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War, a soldier
who received the Victoria Cross for
bravery at the battle of Rorke’s Drift in 1879 (famously dramatised in the 1964
film ‘Zulu’), and a family who perished during the 1915 sinking of the liner
Lusitania, an act that would contribute to the United States’ decision to enter
the First World War.
Visting Philips Park Cemetery
The main
pedestrian entrance to Philips Park Cemetery is at its western end, at the
junction of Alan Turing Way and Briscoe Lane. There is also a pedestrian
footbridge crossing the Medlock from the north east of Philips Park. There are vehicle entrances to the
north on Riverpark Road.
The cemetery opens for visitors from 9am
on weekdays and from 10am on
Saturday, Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Bank Holidays, Christmas Day,
Boxing Day and on any other public holiday when the cemetery is closed for
interments. The cemetery closes at different times depending on the season: for
more information visit the Manchester City Council website.