Liverpool's Dead Interesting - Wavertree Cemetery

 

In July 1867 while digging at the place then called Victoria Park in Wavertree, Liverpool, workmen in the process of building new houses, two of which were built for Patrick O Connor, patentee, ironmonger, merchant and chair to the Wavertree Local Board of Health, came across at least eight ancient burial urns in a tumulus or cemetery; however, they destroyed at least six of these without due care and attention, and only two were dug up and, still in a reasonable state of preservation, were given over to the guardianship of Liverpool Museum for further safe-keeping. These collared funery urns, and a few other fragments, were later examined and found to date from the Bronze Age. However, the workmen who discovered the urns had at the same time 'destroyed' the grave (tumulus) in which the urns had lay. The site where this destruction took place is today semi-detached housing on North Drive, Wavertree, but, there are no signs whatsoever of a tumulus or mound, if there ever had been one, which contained the funery urns. North Drive is 2 miles east of Liverpool City Centre, at the north side of High Street, and just to the east of Wavertree Playground (known locally as the Mystery).

When Holy Trinity Church was built (1794), Wavertree was described as "a pretty village pleasantly situated on a sandstone ridge about 200 feet above sea level, forming an agreeable contrast to the sea aspects of Liverpool". Life was very primitive. Coal gas was not available. Electricity had not been discovered. Candles and oil lamps provided light. Transport was by horse. Most men worked on the land. Most women worked in their parents homes or were housewives. Crime was rare. The massive churchyard at Holy Trinity dates back as far as the church - over 200 years, though originally the site was only a fraction of the land it now covers. It contains a great number of graves, with tombs dating back to 1700s, and so much history. In 1793 land was acquired by a group of local gentlemen and merchants and in 1794, with the agreement of the Bishop of Chester, the Wavertree Chapel at Ease to Childwall Church was built, designed by John Hope. On the 5th of August 1794 the Bishop, the Very Reverend William Cleaver, consecrated the building, dedicating it to "The Holy Trinity". Since the 1st of April 2002 the churchyard has been maintained by Liverpool City Council, and individual graves are tended by the families concerned.

 

War Memorial

 

In 1920 a War Memorial was erected, constructed in Portland stone, it was designed by H. Tyson Smith and consecrated in remembrance of those who laid down their lives in the 1914-1918 conflict, with an additional dedication to the casualties of WWII. The churchyard also contains the war graves of 11 British service personnel of World War I and 17 of WWII. The church was designed by John Hope and dates from 1794, and is a Georgian style church, but because of necessary repairs, a part of it was re-modelled in 1911 in Neo-Grec style by Charles Reilly, professor of Architecture at Liverpool University. In 1903, two benefactors gave surrounding land to the church so expanding the, up till then, small churchyard. The Church Tower, which had originally contained two Bells, was inspected in 1953 and found unsafe. The City Surveyor blamed inherent structural weakness aggravated by the effects of bombing during the war and it was taken down. The late sir John Betjeman subsequently described Holy Trinity Church, Wavertree, as "Liverpool's best Georgian Church". In 1932, the PCC negotiated the purchase of additional land between the existing Churchyard and Prince Alfred Road. This increased the area of the Churchyard by over a third.

One of Liverpool’s most famous addresses is 251 Menlove Avenue, the childhood home of John Lennon. The boulevard on which he grew up was developed in the 1920s and named after a local councillor, Alderman Thomas Menlove who had died the previous decade and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Wavertree. He had lived with his wife and a servant at Aston House, Hunters Lane, Wavertree and was actively involved with the nearby Holy Trinity Church. By 1913 his health was failing and he resigned from the his chairman role, but remained an alderman. Thomas died at his home on the 30th of November that year and his funeral took place at Holy Trinity Church and he was buried in the graveyard. The strong wind and rain meant that Archdeacon Madden struggled to make himself heard as he read the burial service at the graveside. Another unusual story involves Michelle Cox, the cousin of Hollywood star Kim Cattrall, who found the family headstone at Holy Trinity church had been replaced with a brand new one bearing the name of the 'Sex And The City' actress - inscribed underneath with the legend 'Liverpool’s Cleopatra'. The name of Miss Cattrall’s late father, Dennis, had also been added to the stone. Already buried in the grave are William David Cattrall (1899-1939) and his wife, Edith May (1900-1950), who are both Michelle and Kim’s grandparents. In an interview Miss Cattrall described how there was a headstone in Liverpool "waiting with my name, my birthdate and then a dash and space for the date of my death". The star revealed: "It’s a family grave and there is space left for me – so I know wherever it happens I’m going to end up in Liverpool." However, after two years of scrapping it out in ecclesiastical courts, Kim lost the battle and was ordered to pay for a new replacement gravestone, without her or her Cleopatra by-line. ( more about Kim here - ( http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/01/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-kim.html ).

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/02/liverpools-dead-interesting-west-derby.html