Mass Grave in Old Swan

[Ged]

Does anyone remember that when they were demolishing the opposite side of St. Oswalds street, they came across a mass grave site. My mate lived in Elm's House Road so I was forever getting the number 10 in Norton Street. I was born in Holly Street, the flats similar to Eldon Grove and later moved to Gerard Gardens when Holly Street had to make way for the new St. Anne Street Police station. I loved that community and era - no playstations or X boxes, no interacting via a joystick, screen or keyboard - proper face to face games. Does anyone have any photos of Rose Hill Police station which preceded St. Anne Street station?

[snappel]

I'd heard about the graves from a Tom Slemen story, but I've no idea. There's an interview with him where he mentions it...

"There were 3,561 bodies buried according to age group in a huge square, in coffins of an unknown type of wood that would not burn."

They were found in October 1973 while clearing space for a Roman Catholic primary school. No maps or parish records show this graveyard.

"The mystery deepens as the Home Office soon cordoned off the site, and the bodies were taken to be cremated and buried at a cemetery in Anfield."

Archaeologists from London were furious, but the Home Office refused to comment until the 1990s and then admitted the entire files were lost.

Source

[Ged]

All sounds a bit dodgy if true doesn't it. A Tom Slemen story recently appeared in the Bootle Times about a reptile monster type creature that's supposed to have popped in and out of the rubbish chutes in Gerard Gardens much to the horror of the local residents and was well known. Weill I lived there from 1968 to 78 and heard nothing about it. Now i'm not saying any of his stories are 'made up' but 11 books of ghostly happenings? I've heard that someone will come up to him at his book launches and say have you heard this one Tom, whether they then appear in his next book and how much verification can actually be made is open to question but if nothing else the paying public seem to like them enough.

[PhilipG]

There is some truth about the mass grave in Old Swan.
I first read about it years ago (well before Tom Slemen's books).
Can't remember the details, but they were thought to be the casualties of some mass sickness in the city centre, and they were all buried together outside the Town.

It sounds like more details have been added to the story to make it more "interesting".

[snappel]

That's a more likely explanation than a mass-genocide by members of the occult. Or whatever.

Would be interesting to find out more about it...

[Ged]

I wonder if they may have been plague victims like those buried in Addison Street which was formerly called Sickmans lane because of it?

[PhilipG]

That's a more likely explanation than a mass-genocide by members of the occult. Or whatever.

Would be interesting to find out more about it...

I've found the source.
It was Derek Whale's "Lost Villages of Liverpool" Part 1 (1984).

The graves were first discovered in April 1973, so a trawl through the newspapers at the Record Office might reveal contemporary accounts.

[Waterways]

That's a more likely explanation than a mass-genocide by members of the occult. Or whatever.

Would be interesting to find out more about it...

Plague victims usually were buried without coffins. Most, if not all, were in coffins. Plague and cholora tended to take many victims.

[ChrisGeorge]

There is some truth about the mass grave in Old Swan.
I first read about it years ago (well before Tom Slemen's books).
Can't remember the details, but they were thought to be the casualties of some mass sickness in the city centre, and they were all buried together outside the Town.

It sounds like more details have been added to the story to make it more "interesting".

Hi all

There appears to be a strong school of thought that the bodies may have been those of Irish famine victims. I remember Waterways was asking recently where Irish famine victims were buried. The following is from
Manchester Irish.com in April of this year:

FAMINE IRISH: MASS MURDER IN LIVERPOOL

A fascinating piece by Peter Berresford Ellis recently appeared in the Irish Post. In 1973 a mass grave was found in Old Swan in Liverpool. In total the remains of 3,561 bodies were found. Journalists were kept away from the site and the Home Office ordered the immediate cremation of the bodies.

Merseyside criminologist Keith Andrews has investigated the case and believes this is a case of mass murder,

"...'Containment Squads' moved in on the diseased and starving immigrants, removed their children, then herded the Irish men and women to a containment camp in a field on the outskirts of Liverpool. They were then systematically shot and buried in unmarked coffins".

Berresford Ellis states:

"If Andrews can prove his contention, we are talking about one of the greatest murders of Irish men and women since Cromwellian times".

[PhilipG]

As if!

Really.
Some people.

Etc., etc.

Presumably the Irish Famine victims died in Ireland and were buried there.
Yes, I know the Famine caused many to emigrate, but I don't think they emigrated to die wholesale at their destinations.