Haha ....I should have seen that one coming shouldn't I? .
Getting swiftly back on topic ....
It's pretty obvious that no one realized the scale of how many bodies would be uncovered when they began the ground work on the school ....as quoted by K A Williams below
But when those bodies WERE discovered, instead of quickly ordering a mass cremation of them all and then allowing a newspaper or two to give a brief explanation , which must have left so many people wondering ~ WHY wasn't more detailed information given out as a sign of respect for the dead & any of their possible families who may still be living????This discovery was simply beyond the boundary of that graveyard, extending much further than was realized - thousands more bodies.
If the coffins had nameplates on, then those names should have been shown for all to see. They probably wouldn't have meant much to most of us, but they may have meant a lot to any remaining families of the deceased. I think it would have also proved that there was no sort of 'cover up' in all of this and may have stopped all this unnecessary speculation and uncertainty.
The way it stands is so sad .... as no one knows the real truth behind all this and those people who died and were buried in this place have no name, meaning or record of existence :-(
Thanks to all for this input, 3,561 ? sorry but looks to me like a cover up ? what happed to the 3,561 coffins some lead lined ? made of special wood ? not burned with them poor sad bodies ? I don’t think it the Irish, in them days they would have just been put in a hole ? disease, the same would have happened, moved from another grave yard ? no too many ?
got me thinking.
My personal opinion is everything I've read on this points to it being a cemetery being moved, the necropolis for example ? I'm unsure if this is the case, it is a lot of coffins and bodies for it not to have been mentioned in any press, but moving of interred bodies back in them days Should had stood out in the press. Another thing to take into consideration is that 3 thousand bodies is a hell of a lot to bury, a lot of earth moved and would have took a conciderable amount of time to complete. Where did the earth end up ect, I'm looking into this a little took much I think
Christopher T. George
Editor, Ripperologist
Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
Chris on Flickr and on MySpace
Extracts from St Oswald Church website:
http://www.stoswaldoldswan.org.uk/
Mass graves:
"In 1973 plans were in operation for the building of a new Infant and Junior schools. The first was opened in 1974 (see schools) but work had to be suspended on the second because excavations revealed thousands of rotting coffins piled 16 deep along an underground tunnel and across an area of forty square feet, said finally to number 3561.These anonymous bodies were exhumed and cremated while the area was sealed off and Public Health Officials continued their daily rounds for nearly two years. In the middle of 1975 the last corpse was removed and all the ashes were were reburied in Anfield Cemetery."
Junior School:
"This is the Junior School, Montague Road. Work on demolition and rebuilding continued but was delayed for 18 months by the discovery of a large number of coffins (see events) Not until 8th September 1981 was the new school opened and blessed by Archbishop Worlock."
Unlikely that a cemetery would be removed.
Graveyards were sometimes moved if the land was wanted for building, like St Peter's as mentioned.
The bodies are still in Grant Gardens (former Necropolis), St John's Gardens, the Cathedral Gardens, and St Thomas Church (only recently made into a garden), to name but a few.
That's why they were laid out as gardens and not built upon.
I think this is one of the tales we will never get to the bottom
Of. Still it adds another chapter to liverpools many mysteries
Keeping it real!
LIVERPOOL OLD POSTCARDS AND PHOTOS HERE http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/a...To%20Download/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKmGi...eature=related
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/
The map referred to here (post 136) is the 1925 revision OS.
The burial grounds are marked as disused.
They are also shown on the 1905-6 revision - presumably still in use.
In that case, I'm thinking a great mystery has been created out of nothing more than another cemetery.
If they're shown on maps, there's no mystery about the fact they existed.
3,000+ seems quite a small number when you learn that 27,000+ were buried in St John's between 1800 and 1820.
Hi Philip
I think this is a clear case that it is too easy to jump to easy conclusions, and that proper research will reveal the truth. I have been involved with some research on a curiously named stream near Baltimore that is on the North Point battlefield of September 12, 1814. The name of the stream is Bread and Cheese Creek. The local story is that the soldiers of 1814 ate their rations of bread and cheese on the banks of the creek and this consequently gave the name to the stream. I had the sense though that the name dated back further than that, since the parcels of land that were given to colonists often had curious names. That turns out to be the case, since I have now found a land record dating back to 1733 which uses the name!
Chris
Christopher T. George
Editor, Ripperologist
Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
Chris on Flickr and on MySpace
Bookmarks