Photo-a-Day (Saturday, 12th April, 2025)
Ince Cemetery
The land upon which the cemetery was built was once part of the Ince Hall estate and was purchased from John Walmersley for £305 per acre as a result of the Burial Act of 1855.
At that time the population of Ince had 3,454 Protestants, 731 Catholics and 632 Dissenters.
The Protestant Chapel accommodated 60 people, the other Chapel was split into two chapels for 30 Catholics and 30 Dissenters.
Both are Grade II Listed which if this designation is anything go by judging by many other Grade II buildings in Wigan, they'll be left to rot!
Photo: Colin Traynor (iPhone)
What is the reason buildings are left to rot, not only Churches but pubs aswell.
Someone must own them. Many buildings can stand for years before something is done about them, ie the Big Rock pub at Britanier Bridge at Lower Ince, and the Victoria Pub at Platt Bridge, in rouin for donkeys years.
It’s the same in a lot of Cemeteries with Chapels no longer used. Churches are used instead for the service and the priest goes to the Cemetery for more prayers at the interment .. Others go straight to the Crematorium. I suppose it’s all to do with the expense of the upkeep and ‘surplus to requirement’. Not very nice to see.
Everything is decaying where ever you look, Wigan Town shops, pubs, parks and schools. Where are we heading to.
Some of those graves have not been attended to for years, the whole place looks tired and unkempt sadly.
Where abouts is this chapel?
My friend's Aunt used to clean those chapels.....I'm glad she can't see the state of them now. She is buried near one of them. And yet, despite their condition, I would hate to see them demolished; they are just such a familiar part of the landscape and the cemetery would look odd without them.
Bother these Chapels are in Ince Cemetery.
Driving from Lower Ince along Warrington Road turn right into Cemetery Road just before you get to Spring View. The ‘former’ Old Hall pub is on the corner.
At the bottom of Cemetery Road is Wigan Cemetery, the two are separated by the West Coast Mainline.
It always seemed the
‘gypsies’ collected the money…it was also interesting to have a Chimney Sweep as well as the usual cowboys and nurses.
We used to congregate around the old school canteen in John St. or the ‘ breid’ in Vauxhall Rd. What a ‘raggle taggle’ bunch we were. I think we bought toffees from Ginny Dyke’s shop with the collection. I don’t think we got much really there were too many processions bumping into each other. Sometimes eyeing one another on the other side of the street with envy!
Colin, your information relating to these chapels is a bit muddled. For instance, protestants are dissenters. It was their dissent against the established church which made them protestant.
So sorry Colin that post was meant for the May Queen photo on Album.
I don’t know how the heck I managed to do that!!!! Sorry.
The photo is no surprise really. Wigan has one of the worst records of letting buildings get into this sort of state...even grade listed buildings.
The ones in Atherton cemetery are as bad if not worse.The one in Hindley cemetery is a credit to the people who renovated it.
I believe the chapels were for sale some years back But no one was interested in buying
John Noakes. No. Once the Church of England was the established Church - certainly by the time of Elizabeth the First, it was the Protestant CoE. However if you were a non Anglican Protestant eg Quaker, Puritan, Baptist etc - even Methodist you were regarded as a Dissenter and often persecuted.. Non Conformist was another term. These were of course also completely distinct from Roman Catholics
Cindy, not really suitable for a Costa Coffee or KFC.
I believe Noakes is right, all the history books say that dissenters was a name given to those who broke away from the church of england and they broke away from it because of it being too catholic for their liking. I've read all about this subject as my wife is roman catholic and i wanted to know about it. All Saints in wigan is catholic too and they had nuns
A lot of my mothers ancesters are buried here upsets me to see the state of the cematery cant get there anymore as I live on the continent and as far as I know I am the last relative except for relatives in Aus what a shame.
Ken, apart from the two chapels, the cemetery is not as bad as you imagine. I haven't walked through there for a while but I go past regularly on the bus and it looks fine. Naturally some of the graves are very, very old and perhaps there is no-one left to visit them now, but there are also more modern graves where people leave flowers. The grass and paths appear to be kept in good order. Please don't worry.
The nuns from All Saints were Anglican nuns not RC nuns. High Anglican and Catholic are very similar in their services.
Carolaen, I'm afraid you're wrong there. The Anglican (High) Church of England was and is known as the 'established church' in this country and is catholic, referring to 'the universal, global community of believers in Christ', nothing to do with Rome. It was created by King Henry the Eighth under his control, as opposed to the control of the Pope ie: Henry fell out with the Pope, not the faith.
Protestants, a different movement altogether, were the dissenters from that established church.
'A little learning is a dangerous thing ' .
Carolean is correct. The Roman Catholic faith is Universal in that the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church in many countries. The High Anglican is for the English. Henry broke away from the Pope because he wanted to divorce his wife and that was not allowed. He established himself as Head of the Anglican Church and it has passed down to every Sovereign since. There are still differences between the Roman Catholics and the Anglican Catholics.
Yet another can of ‘religious’ worms!
But as Irene says, despite the state of the two Chapels, both Wigan and Ince Cemeteries are well maintained by the council and it is pleasant to visit.
My Grandparents on my mother’s side are buried there along with a great aunt and her husband and daughter in the same grave. Despite knowing the grave number I have not been able to find it, I assume the gravestone has been removed and the plot grassed over.
That would have made a good title for the photo Colin.
A good few years ago I went to look for Grt Grandparents’ graves but because they were pauper’s graves there were no headstones. It was a case of following on from numbers on headstones and judging the spaces where they
‘ might’ be lying. There were too many pauper’s graves in the past sadly.
I wouldn’t have even found the grave spaces but for the cemeteries lists on Wigan World. A valuable source indeed.
Many years ago..I believe it was in 1941,two young boys were knocked down by a bus in Wallgate and killed outright…coming up to the present time a man who uses the name ‘Johnboy’ appeared on WW..who tells the sad story..I myself was told the story by my Mam..the children’s names were John McMahon and the other child’s surname was Crowe.
These two little boys were always together and so were buried together but the Crowes family couldn’t afford the burial so the Macmahons paid for them to be buried together ..
I myself was brought up in Wallgate and knew the families..the MacMahons were the grocers in Great George Street and when Mrs MacMahon had her second son she named him John who is the person on WW who now goes under the name of Johnboy..I’m almost sure that he said the children were laid to rest together in Ince cemetery ,I promised him that we would go and say hello to the children which we did..I don’t know if Johnboy is still around but he hasn’t posted for awhile now.
Thought they would be OK for an office.