The Parish of Atherton in the County of -- Lancashire --

Memorial Inscriptions at Atherton Cemetery

Atherton Cemetery is on the NW side of Leigh Road between the town centre and Howe Bridge. The main gate is at the town end at the corner of Leigh Road and Liscard Street SD668028. The cemetery opened for business in 1857 with the Nonconformist burial of 70 years old Ann Smith on February 15th. There are two mortuary chapels in the cemetery, one Church of England, the other Nonconformist; both remain but neither are in use as chapels. There is easy free parking in Liscard Street.

While visiting Atherton in July 2005, I took photographs of all the gravestones I could find which included someone who had died before 1900. In addition Keith Openshaw (OPC for Astley) kindly provided me with transcriptions of seven I had missed. The inscriptions from 678 monuments are recorded here and images of nearly all are freely available from me on request; please quote the image number when ordering.

Keith Openshaw also gave me a copy of his transcripts of the burial registers he obtained from Wigan MBC Cemeteries Section. The transcripts cover the years February 1857- March 1913 for Church of England burials, and February 1857- July 1915 for Nonconformist burials. I have made extensive use of the registers to identify grave numbers, and confirm dates and ages of inscriptions which were hard to read. In the data listed here, it is assumed that the burials were in the grave as numbered, unless otherwise noted, or if the date of death was later than about 1913 in which case the burials could be elsewhere in the cemetery.

We do not have WMBC approval to post the burial registers on the internet, but both Keith and I offer a free look-up service for specific requests.

Peter Wood
December 2005

	Atherton Cemetery gates on Leigh Road. The building was originally the Cemetery Keeper’s house. Photo by Peter Wood July 2005

	Sign at the cemetery entry giving opening hours, rules and regulations and a warning to stonemasons. Photo by Peter Wood July 2005

	The disused Nonconformist mortuary chapel in Atherton Cemetery. Photo by Peter Wood July 2005