Blackley Cemetery is a large, municipal

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

situated within the northern suburbs of the city of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, and is owned, operated and maintained by

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three ...

. The cemetery and crematorium complex is located on Victoria Avenue in the district of Blackley. It was opened in 1953 on land that was previously a golf course. The cemetery contains Blackley Crematorium, the only crematorium facility operated by

(the other crematorium in the city, the Manchester Crematorium at Southern Cemetery, being an independent company), opened in 1959. The crematorium features 3 chapels – one large, central chapel, with twinned smaller chapels to the eastern and western sides of the building. The crematory area of the crematorium is equipped with 3 'Newton'-model cremators, installed by the Furnace Construction Co. Ltd. of

Hyde, Cheshire Hyde is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, which had a population of 34,003 in 2011. Historically in Cheshire, it is northeast of Stockport, west of Glossop and east of Manchester. History Early history Newton Hall was prese ...

. The cemetery was, at one time, well known for having problems with drainage, with surface water being problematic during burials and visitation to grave sites. The city has worked to rectify this situation in recent years, with the installation of ground drainage schemes being completed in 2009. The ground drainage scheme has opened up new areas for the opening of new graves, in parts of the cemetery that were originally thought to be unusable. A currently unused area of the cemetery is to be developed into a Natural Burial area. This project is currently in the planning and problem-solving stage, and it is as yet unknown when the new burial area will be opened for use.

Notable burials

Buried here in the Non-Conformist section is

Ethel Carnie Holdsworth Ethel Carnie Holdsworth (1 January 1886 – December 1962), working-class writer, feminist, and socialist activist from Lancashire (also published as Ethel Carnie and Ethel Holdsworth). Poet, journalist, children's writer and author, Carnie Hol ...

(1886–1962), working-class writer, feminist, and socialist activist. In 1991, the remains of 63 executed prisoners (of which 45 were identifiable) that had been exhumed from unmarked graves in the Strangeways Prison cemetery following rebuilding work at the prison, were cremated at Blackley Crematorium. The cremated remains were re-interred in two graves (plot C2710 and C2711) at the adjacent cemetery. They included the remains of the three Manchester Martyrs – who had been hung at the New Bailey Prison in Salford, Manchester on November 23, 1867 for the killing of a policeman. Blackley Crematorium was the venue for the funeral in 1994 of ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'' actress Doris Speed and in 2007 of

Bernard Manning Bernard John Manning (13 August 1930 – 18 June 2007) was an English comedian and nightclub owner. Manning gained a high profile on British television during the 1970s, appearing on shows such as '' The Comedians'' and ''The Wheeltappers and ...

, the Manchester-born comedian. Manning had previously visited the centre chapel of the crematorium building to pre-record a video piece to be played at his funeral service. The grave of Corporal Clifford Haughton,

Royal Regiment of Fusiliers The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (often referred to as the Royal Fusiliers or, simply, the Fusiliers) is an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Queen's Division. Currently, the regiment has two battalions: the 1st battalion, part of ...

and his wife and children stands in the cemetery. They were all killed by the IRA in 1974 in the

M62 coach bombing The M62 coach bombing, sometimes referred to as the M62 Massacre, occurred on 4 February 1974 on the M62 motorway in northern England, when a 25-pound (11 kg) Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb hidden inside the luggage locker ...

, when a time bomb exploded on their coach en route to Catterick.

References

External links

* {{Cemeteries in England, state=collapsed Geography of Manchester Cemeteries in Manchester