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Tuesday 5 Apr 2011

STATION PLAQUE MARKS OLD PAUPER GRAVE

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A plaque has been placed on railings at the head of platforms 1 and 2 at Manchester’s Victoria station to mark the location of a former burial ground.

While rebuilding the platforms for Network Rail last year, contractor J Murphy & Sons Ltd uncovered a number of bones that lay close to the foundations of the island platform.

Work was immediately halted and the police and coroner’s office were advised.

Investigations revealed that the bones were human - but very old.

Richard Davies, Network Rail’s project manager, started researching the history of the station and made the discovery that part of it is built over a former graveyard.

Mr Davies said: “The graveyard was called Walker’s Croft Cemetery. It was originally owned by the collegiate church of Manchester - now known as the Cathedral - but latterly maintained by the town.

“When the station was built in the 1840s the railway companies had enormous power and it would seem they could build almost wherever they liked. Consequently, part of the cemetery now lies beneath platform 2.”

With the assistance of the local Co-operative Funeral Service, the remains that were uncovered were given a respectful burial in Southern Cemetery in Manchester.

At about the time the discovery was made, Mrs Catherine Bowers Wain from Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria was carrying out in-depth research into her family history. From this, she found out that her great, great, great grandfather Henry Bailey is buried beneath the platform.

Mr Bailey was deputy constable of Cheetham and drowned in 1835 trying to save the life of a child who had fallen into the River Irwell.

Mrs Bowers Wain contacted Network Rail to ask if a plaque could be put up to mark the location of the former cemetery.

At a small ceremony led by Richard Davies from Network Rail, the plaque was unveiled by Northern Rail station manager Stephen Green following words and a prayer from railway chaplain Rev Richard Cook.