Wigan Album

Somewhere in the graveyard lies my little sister, who only lived 4 months and was buried there in March 1944. Just before Covid kicked in, I tried to find where she lay but she does not have a headstone. My wishes are for my ashes to be laid in the church graveyard as a Standisher as my 2 other sisters (now deceased this year) were Wiganers having been born in Pemberton & Swinley.

Barrie,how sad,I'm sure they all have numbers on their gravestones so im sure that the church records would enable you to find your little sister.

Superb photo David.

Look round and round upon this bare bleak plain, and see even here, upon a winter’s day, how beautiful the shadows are! Alas! it is the nature of their kind to be so. The loveliest things in life, Tom, are but shadows; and they come and go, and change and fade away, as rapidly as these! ~ Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens.

Barrie - assuming her name was Rosemary, her burial is recorded in St Wilfrid's Burial Register on the LOPC site - at the age of 3 months. Unfortunately, at that time, no record of the burial place was written on the register entries - so it's a bit more difficult to locate graves. However, there is a record of burial spaces at the church. From when I last used it to locate graves, I remember it as being rather eccentric - burials in family graves were recorded on the same page as the first burial in the grave - rather than date order of the burials. If you want to have another go at locating the grave, it may help to look on the LOPC to list the names of those buried around the same time, and find the section of the churchyard where burials took place in 1944. If you're lucky, you'll find named headstone corresponding to the burials on the LOPC - and perhaps her grave will be the unmarked one between the burials which took place each side of hers.

A still & sombre image Rev Long but never the less its its own way it's quite beautiful....

A very sombre scene with the walls ‘ wrapped around’. Reminds me of the opening scene in a film from a Charles Dicken’s novel. Was it ‘Great Expectations’ or ‘David Copperfield’…?Forgotten! So many distinguished scenes.

Watching a news programme the reporter said cemeteries commission checking all grave stone with a pushover test they will lie it flat with a notice on if you want it back standing up and secure it will cost 250 quid does that include a church grave yard

Barrie so sad reading your story but don’t give up I believe you will get there.

Yes, Tom. Sadly became necessary after kids messing about ended up injured by the stones they were vandalising. Test are carried out periodically for insurance - where possible families are notified if action is required to render dodgy stones safe, but they will be laid down if there is no response, or families are untraceable. In churchyards families can arrange to either make the stones safe, or re-erect any laid down at their own expense (and according to modern guidelines on the safe mounting of headstones) but, as far as I know, there is no fee levied by churches as they do not undertake to carry out such work themselves. Unless a stone is in imminent danger of collapse, warning is given of its potential instability by putting hazard tape around the stone.

Veronica, the scene you describe will probably be the opening scenes from Great Expectations when Pip is confronted by Magwitch in the graveyard.
https://www.markedbyteachers.com/gcse/english/the-opening-graveyard-scene-of-charles-dickens-great-expectations-has-become-part-of-the-cinematic-canon-in-view-of-this-analyse-the-key-elements-and-comment-upon-their-effectiveness-in-the-film-versions-you-have-studied.html

That sloping path down to the Lychgate would have been lethal in those conditions . It's bad enough after rain , the flagstones being so smooth . A definite crampon job in snow .

Speaking of Dickens , the opening paragraph to Bleak House is the finest bit of prose I've ever read . You can taste the smog as you read it .

Best ending ? A Tale of Two Cities , perhaps appropriate to the picture ...... '
' It's a far , far better thing I do than I have ever done . It's a far , far better rest I go to than I have ever known ' .

That’s the one Cyril…crouching behind the tombstones in the howling wind. So dramatic…

Linda, thanks for the comments, 3 years ago I started the search then Covid got in the way.
David, I found some details of her birth and death in the Parish record, with the help from Elaine 3 years ago but with Covid restrictions plus my wife being in hospital in 2021,I didn't have time to follow it through. Many years ago, my sisters once told me that in 1944/45 our father took them to the churchyard and showed them where their baby sister was buried. All they remember is passing through the main entrance and taking the path alongside the wall to a spot near the wall where she lay.
Both my sisters passed away this year within 8 months of each other. My elder sister was married in St.Wilfrid's in 1959. Nowadays , it would be put down as a cot death. I do like that photograph -in the deep mid winter.

Barrie, you've certainly not had a good time of late, though I wish you well in your quest. Your words reminded me of the carol In The Bleak Mid-Winter - Susan Boyle vocals: https://youtu.be/NNbe9sthLz4?si=28M0rRSa-A1_ck5g

Here are the lyrics should anyone want to sing along:
In The Bleak Mid-Winter was first published in 1872 entitled A Christmas Carol by Christina Rossetti 1830 - 1894.

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty —
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom Cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom Angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Angels and Archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But only His Mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a Shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

https://poets.org/poem/christmas-carol

Precious memories how they linger in the darknes after midnight
Precious memories flood my soul

Cyril I love that carol. Last week outside Preston market the Salvation Army, who I support, played that carol for me. Perfect.

In the Bleak Mid Winter, always a sad place at this time of year but come Spring, even the graveyard will burst into life.