Mass Grave in Old Swan

[hmtmaj]

I've done some more digging

I've asked a couple of people who went to St Oswalds at the time too.
Some say St Oswalds St, some say Montague Road.

I'm now coming around to your view.
The ones they would have found on St Oswalds ST would have been a few in comparison to the thousands they found around the corner.
I have a couple more people to ask, I'll let you know the outcome.

Looking at the bottom pic of the two page post I done earlier. The houses in the background do look like Mill Lane

Martin

[JMLE]

Can I borrow your magnifying glass so I can read it?

[fortinian]

I'm off to the LRO tomorrow, so i'll look there. This is great work guys, we've really pulled this one together. Beers all round.

Now, once we've established where the graves were, we still have to establish WHAT the graves are.

Incidently, Frank Carslyle was on the radio yesterday morning and he trotted out the 'Irish Cholera Victims' story. So much for local history.

[hmtmaj]

Can I borrow your magnifying glass so I can read it?

Mark ....
see Page 13, Post No 121, the original scan !

On nights were we ?

Mart

[Ged]

Now you know me, I'm a lover not a fighter but ....

Mart. I've just spoken to your lover and sorry but she confirms you're a better fighter.

[Ged]

Surely, part of all this mystery is not just who they were but that they were on land not previously known to be a burial ground so how does that fit in with the Montague Road site which is clearly known to have been part of a burial ground?

[hmtmaj]

Mart. I've just spoken to your lover and sorry but she confirms you're a better fighter.

Er ...
Which One

[Samp]

I worked at the top of Edge Lane in the 70?s and remember walking down Mill lane to see what was going on. This is why I posted my map in the first place, but I still think Martin is more accurate than my recollections.

One point to consider, if the bodies were buried 16 deep, this would not be what you would find in a normal burial ground, which would be a normal 6ft depth, so I don?t see the site being in the convent burial ground.

[fortinian]

Surely, part of all this mystery is not just who they were but that they were on land not previously known to be a burial ground so how does that fit in with the Montague Road site which is clearly known to have been part of a burial ground?

True enough... but I think you are missing the praticalities of such an existance. No original sources mention that the bodies were on land 'not known to be a grave'. All that is ever mentioned is that no-one knows who the bodies belonged to. The 'garden' has obviously been re-turfed and the graves forgotten. The question is, of course, if the 'mass unknown graves' weren't found on the Montague Road site... why was the finding of the 'known graves' never mentioned. If you understand what I mean...


The possibility of graves in coffins with plaques on them from 1959 (as stated by Ken Williams who was in charge of the 1973 exhumation.) has proved to be ridiculous and impossible on the St Oswalds Street Infant School Site.

I spent time checking the Echo and Daily Post in April 1973, the date Derek Whale gives for the graves being found and cannog find any mention, which is odd but corrolates with Ken Williams who said the Home Office called for
"total decorum".

What I think has happened is that an over-zealous reporter has picked this story up, some time after the event and built something out of it that wasn't really there.

[Paddy]

Well most likely the case Fortinian . Ghoulish things create interest.Everytime I walk past saint Austins in Aigburth I am aware that the pavement was once a graveyard. I remember them exhunming the bodies so they could widen the road. Heres another ghoulish tale Hanratty was buried close to Watford they dug him up for his DNA as is now the fashion. They claim he was guilty after the forensics.

[Pete E]

I could stand to be corrected as it gives more in depth information on http://www.stoswaldoldswan.org.uk/history.htm. I do remember going up to St Oswald Street though to satisfy my young morbid curiosity. How is Miss Jones nowadays? She was starting to struggle after her heart problems and onset of MS when my daughter left in 2007.

Miss Jones is still working hard. She loves the place and the kid's.

[JMLE]

Good to hear she's still there, the school would be worse off without her. There can't be too many schools that have such a committed head teacher as St.Oswald's.

[Hutch]

The article below was sent to a local paper by the bloke who was in charge of the operation.

"I have followed with great interest the recent articles in your paper with regard to the mass grave unearthed in St Oswald Street Old Swan.
The principal officer delegated to be incharge of the entire operation was me.
When the original gravestone had been removed and the bodies re-interred the excavation continued beyond this boundary and it was at this stage other coffins were found.
Some plaques on the coffins had dates of 1859 however this should not be considered to be a mass grave at any one time.
I do not recall seeing bullet marks in the skulls and the authorisation to cremate the bodies was implemented by the Home Office as the result of my request that it should be done in the interest of public health. I know all this to be true cause I was there!
K A WILLIAMS, Gateacre, Liverpool (former Principal Environmental Health Officer for Liverpool)
The more relevant question is "What is Tom Slemen's source?"
Strange hooded monks
Heart taken from coprse
Satanist ( How can we take him seriously)"

[bgkk.rock]

Really I think these bodies is not horrible story. maybe they are victims of unkown war, or solider stuff, otherwise. I mean this graveyard belongs uncertain war.

[hmtmaj]

Fortinian has sifted through the evidence and sent me his analysis to put on the Old Swan website:

http://oldswan.piczo.com/massgraveso...linkvar=000044