ST .PAUL Church Yard

Makes a change from the 'church roof fund'!

In answer to their begging booklet, I once offered a church £20,000 towards their church roof repair. Because that's what sort of a chap I am !

However, there was a condition. And that was, I got the contract to do the repairs. Guess what? They didn't accept my offer!

GB,--I was talking about Downall Green Churchyard not St-Pauls

Dougie :
I apologise unreservedly i mistook it for thinking you meant ST.PAULS goose green .I would just like to wish you and yours a happy christmas stay safe . G.B.

THank's same to you Alan

Goldenbear, have you been in touch with the church? I've been taking photo's for Find a Grave. My dad and best friend are buried in St Paul's. I asked before did anyone want to get a group together to tidy or index the graveyards. I also have my Grandparents and quite a few Aunts and Uncles in St Matthews, think you commented on my post looking for a grave plan. I'd like to get involved with a group to help.

Hello ( daviessb)
I apologise for not getting back to you i am a bit of a loss who to contact about a the grave index, I have both my parents and have a grandad in there ,my problem is i cannot find a plot that holds my grandmother in, and i know its strange she is not with grandad . when things get back to some normality i will have to try and contact the vicar . May i ask what is is this photo find a grave all about ??? G.B.

GB: I've also been adding graves to the Find A Grave site. If you go to the Memorials page you can put the deceased person's name and year of death in - if there's a record of that grave on the site, it will show up. You can filter it by adding the name of the cemetery. It's not comprehensive - it depends on whether a volunteer has covered the cemetery or not - and how much detail they've put into the record.
[url="http://www.wigantimes.co.uk"]Wigan Times[/https://www.findagrave.com/memorial]

Hi DaveL,
Thanks for adding photos to FAG. As a result of your post I've just found my Great grandparents grave in St Pauls, not where I expected them!
Not one of your photos though!

macwil - some people systematically cover all the graves in a graveyard, but my additions to the FAG site are a by-product of my work recording graves which carry commemorations to men lost overseas in war. Once I've uploaded them to the War Museum's Register I add them to the FAG database as an addition to their coverage of CWGC war graves.

I took this picture of StPauls Graveyard a few years back, from across Smithy Brook.



As yoo can see there was no fence at the bottom of the graveyard, anyone could have fallen into the brook, and I also thought that the burials were so close to the brook, that if there was a landslip, caused by heavy rain, or something like that, those graves at the bottom of the graveyard would be swept into Smithy Brook, and coffins would be floating along and would end up in the River Douglas, and those dead folk would end up being buried at sea, the Irish Sea

Good photo that TTS , It's totally changed now that bottom section at the bottom is now for cremation only i have been told they will not put graves in there all you get now is ,you pick a spot and make a hole and put the ashes in it ,then as you come in the yard at the top on the left near the huge sycamore tree there is a large grave stone where people 's name can be put on if you are ever in there tommy first headstone after big tree is where my parents are lain ((Thomas & Elizabeth W. stay safe TTS. G.B.

Both My Parents Ashes are in the bottom row .

A plan of St Paul's churchyard is on their website - along with the Burials Register:
https://www.stpaulsgoosegreen.org.uk/resources-links/church-documents/

DaveL,
Once again thank you.
I've just downloaded the plan & register pdfs from St Paul's site and now have the plot location and burial dates to complete my great grandparent's bios.

DAVEL: I wonder if you have ever looked at the Castle Hill cemetary index?
I went on it and what i found very interesting was i was looking up my wife' relations and what i found was that in her parents grave someone had listed " all the occupants in that plot not only that but the dates they were born & died and where unlike my find at St Paul Goose Green i found the plot number but it was a lot more complicated ,it does show practically all who have been laid to rest from the start but has stopped in the recent years. for example i am trying to find my grandmother 's plot and all i can find is a rough place of where she should be i do think the authorities should and could do more ..

GB - I'm not sure why 'the authorities' should and could do more. If you have the grave number, they will tell you all you need to know, if you ask them. If you mean they should put everything you want online - it's a matter of priorities... the 'authorities' have to pay for all sorts of things with increasingly restricted money. Is your need to know where your granny is buried more important than paying to look after someone's granny now? That's the choice 'the authorities' have to make. I know where I'd rather my money was spent.
In the meantime, 'the authorities' enabled the wonderful Freda Chorlton to access their files to create the online database we have for the Wigan Cemeteries. I'm sure they would be just as willing to allow anyone else to access the data to bring it up to date.