Brockhall Hospital and its cemetery

These pages are dedicated to those buried at the Brockhall hospital cemetery, whose names are listed at the end of this document. They include my brother, Peter, whom I never knew - he spent 5 months of his short life at Brockhall and died there at the age of five and a half, 6 years before I was born.

I created this site in 2003 since when it has remained pretty well static and will remain so. Some of the information it contains is now out of date and inaccurate, but I have left it as it was written then apart from editing out web site links that no longer work. My Mum and Gerald Hitman have both since died. Gerald is buried in his cemetery as he told me would happen when I met him at his home at Brockhall. Several people have contacted me via this site to share their experiences at Brockhall Hospital or to give me additional information - I am very grateful for this and it's pleasing to know that development of this site was worthwhile.
Jeff Jones May 2020.


The hospital The cemetery Hospital records and other sources Acknowledgements
and contact
Buried in the Brockhall Hospital Cemetery

In an isolated institution located to the north east of this stone there lived from 1904
to 1992 a large number of people who were thought to be too strange, too difficult or
too challenging to be cared for in their own communities. The institution in turn was
called Lancashire Inebriates Reformatory (1904) Brockhall Hospital for Mental
Defectives (1915) Brockhall Hospital for the Mentally Subnormal (1959) Brockhall
Hospital for Mentally Handicapped People (1974) and Brockhall Hospital for People
with Learning Disabilities (1991). Although those who lived there carried heavier
burdens than most they were part of our common family.
Brockhall Hospital closed its doors in 1992 and the land on which it stood was acquired by
Gerald Shimon Hitman of Newcastle upon Tyne who raised this stone as a memorial to those
who ended their days in the hospital and are buried here. God full of compassion grant
perfect rest beneath the shelter of your presence to these your children who have gone
to their eternal home. Master of mercy, cover them in the shelter of your wings
forever and bind their souls into the gathering of life. It is the Lord who is their
heritage. May they be at peace in their place of rest.

(transcribed from the memorial in the Brockhall Hospital cemetery)

Langho Colony was close to Brockhall Hospital. Brenda Harry has kindly sent me some recollections of her friend Winnie whose father was Bailiff at Langho Colony - scroll down to the end of this page or click here.

The hospital

(There is a photograph of part of the hospital at http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/lancashire/langho/photos/langho_L290027.htm)

When Sir John Hibbert, Chairman of the Lancashire Inebriates Acts Board, opened the Lancashire Inebriates Reformatory at Langho in Lancashire on 14th April 1904, he expressed his 'heart-felt wish that all inmates who might come within its walls would, by its means, be restored to happier and brighter lives'. Having heard Gerald Hitman's account of the history of Brockhall (which is summarised by the inscription on the memorial he erected in the cemetery) I'd say that Sir John's heart-felt wish didn't quite come true.

Papers written by Gillian Hall of John Moores University in Liverpool from her research of the history of Brockhall and its near neighbour, Calderstones, make sad reading, particularly in the light of today's values. I found it disturbing to read about the use of terms such as 'idiots' 'imbeciles' and 'feeble-minded persons' to classify patients, regimes which seem more akin to those of a prison than those of a hospital, and the locking away of people in conditions which severely restricted their privacy and dignity because they did not fit well with society, or their families. I'm sure, however, that there were caring staff at these hospitals who did all they could for their patients.

Brockhall was built on the land of 2 farms, an estate of 326 acres purchased from Mr. Worsley Taylor for £17000. The initial building, which was of a high quality of construction, cost £67000. A statement from the opening ceremony describes the estate as 'an extremely attractive one, a large proportion of it comprising an elevated plateau of grassland, surrounded on three sides by a belt of well-grown timber, while from the plateau there is a slope to some meadow and pastureland, which run alongside the southerly bank of the River Ribble'. Several further developments followed and Brockhall's number of patients reached about 2500 at its peak. Wards were named after trees and woodland for men (e.g. Beechwood House) and flowers for women and children (e.g. Aster House) - I am aware of Aster, Begonia, Crocus, Dahlia, Elder, Fern, Beechwood, Geranium, Hyacinth, Iris, Cedarwood, Denewood, Elmwood, Johnswood, Ashwood, Nasturtium, Buttercup and Thistle (which is where my brother was).

Following its closure in 1992, the hospital was demolished and the site redeveloped for housing (Blackburn Rovers' training ground is also there) as Brockhall Village. Apart from the retention of the name Brockhall, and the conversion of one of the hospital buildings into homes (now called Watling Gate), probably the most tangible reminder of the hospital is its cemetery in which over 600 people are buried.

The cemetery

The hospital's cemetery is adjacent to that of St Leonard's church at Old Langho, separated by a tall hedge. The Brockhall cemetery has its own entrance from the road, a short lane leading to a lych gate at the cemetery entrance. Originally, patients who died at the hospital and who were not 'taken home' by their families were buried in the churchyard. In the 1930s, with the churchyard filling up, it was decided that the hospital should have its own cemetery and a field was allocated for this purpose. Later, the churchyard was extended and so the two graveyards became adjacent. There are few individual memorials in the hospital cemetery to mark the graves of the 600+ people buried here, and it is difficult to distinguish individual graves. The hospital authorities decided to stop using the cemetery for new burials in the late 1980s.

I found a letter from Derek Bunn of Blackburn who worked at Brockhall, and for 30 years arranged funerals there, on the 'This is Lancashire' web site. The letter points out that, contrary to 'recent reports and letters', not all those buried in the hospital cemetery had been abandoned and forgotten. In fact, many relatives had asked for deceased patients to be buried there as they felt that Brockhall had become their home. It also states that patients with 'no known relatives' were usually cremated unless they had expressed wishes regarding their funeral. I spoke to Derek who told me that, apart from a few years, the practice was to mark each grave with a numbered stone and that there used to be registers and maps of the cemetery. He also told me that there are several sets of cremated remains interred beside the lane from the road to the lych gate, on the left hand side.

Ownership of the cemetery is now in the hands of Gerald Hitman and his family following a tortuous series of events, including actual and apparent changes of ownership, which could have led, at one point, to the redevelopment of the site. The NHS insisted that the cemetery be included in the original sale of the hospital site, but, after maintaining it for several years, and erecting the memorial at his own expense, Gerald discovered that ownership had not in fact been transferred to him. After some negotiations regarding selling (for a nominal sum) the cemetery to the church, which had a need for further burial space and planned to combine the two cemeteries, the NHS decided to auction the land, but it was sold prior to auction, then repurchased by Gerald. Unfortunately there are no plans for the church to integrate Brockhall cemetery with its own, and so the hospital's cemetery will remain separate.

Hospital records and other sources of information

Surviving patient records for Brockhall hospital are held at the Lancashire Records Office in Preston, who also hold administrative records - all records belong to the NHS Trust. Patient records are subject to a 100 year closure, other records 30 years, however, on a case by case basis, permission may be given (by the medical records officer at Calderstones) for records office staff to supply details held for individual patients (a £20 per hour charge is made for research, although a limited initial search may be made free of charge). Actual records held vary by patient and year. The files for patients who died at Brockhall were usually destroyed 8 years after death, although entries in registers (e.g. a 'notice of death book' and a 'patients change book') may still survive. The Lancashire Records Office is at Bow Lane, Preston PR1 8ND..

Blackburn Central Library has a file which includes some newspaper clippings about Brockhall Hospital - they are at Town Hall Street, Blackburn BB2 1AG.

The National Archives web site at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk includes a hospital records database at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords which is a joint project of the Wellcome Trust and the Public Record Office that provides information on the existence and location of the records of hospitals in the UK. There are 4 entries for Brockhall Hospital which provide further details of available records, although some of this may be out of date - I have not followed up all the information shown.

-

In the course of learning about Brockhall I found references on a number of web sites - here are those not already mentioned in the text above:

The Rossbret 'UK Institutions' web site included a brief reference to 'Brockhall Institution', founded as an inebriate reformatory for women, used for mental defectives from 1920, renamed as Brockhall Hospital and closed in 1993. (May 2020 - I cannot find this site now).

A site which included a history of the Hacking family name talked about part of the Ribble Valley around Hacking Hall and mentioned the then (March 1836) tenant of Brock Hall, Thomas Hubbersty. (May 2020 - I cannot find this site now).

A site about homes in the Ribble Valley mentioned Brock Hall, Old Langho and its 'development of some fine private houses' and Blackburn Rovers training ground. It referenced its earlier existence as 'a large community of unfortunates' with buildings for males 'named after trees or woodland', and 'females' and children's wards after flowers', and mentioned the 'extremely strict, and sometimes cruel regime'. It also stated 'This was once the home of the Brockholes family who moved to Claughton Halland (presumably this should be 'Claughton Hall and') the Braddyll family, who were entrusted with the properties of Whalley Abbey following the Dissolution.' (May 2020 - I cannot find this site now).

http://www.hackwriters.com/imperfect.htm is part of an Internet magazine site 'devoted to good writing'. This fictional piece called 'Future Imperfect' includes a reference to three colonies in the Ribble Valley. which, until the 1980s, had been 'Lunatic Asylums' - Langho Colony, Brockhall Colony and Calderstones.

Acknowledgements

Gerald Hitman preserved and continues to maintain the Brockhall cemetery, and erected the memorial to those buried there.

I'd like to thank Gerald, Gill Hall of John Moores University in Liverpool and Andrew Thynne of the Lancashire Records office for their help which has enabled me to produce these pages. Thanks also to Rev. Steve Cooper of St. Leonard's Langho for answering my initial enquiry about the location of my brother's grave, pointing me in the right direction and helping me understand the history of the cemetery, and to Derek Bunn for talking to me about the 40 years he worked at Brockhall. And to my Mum for telling me how to find my brother's grave and for reliving the terrible experience that she and my late Dad had as young parents of an epileptic child in wartime Liverpool, whose admission to a hospital miles from home they reluctantly agreed.

If you have read this far I'd like to thank you too and hope that what you have read has been of interest. Thank you for your understanding of people who are now cared for in the community, even though they may not fit as well as most of us and in whose company we may not feel very comfortable.

If you would like to E-mail me, please do so at JeffJones@jeffandjan.com
Jeff Jones in Herefordshire, originally from Liverpool. January 2003.

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Buried in the Brockhall Hospital Cemetery

The names of those buried in the Brockhall Hospital Cemetery are engraved on the memorial erected there and are reproduced here in the order in which they appear.

1939 Florence Diane Craig 47
1939 Edward Finn 63
1940 John Hynes 8
1940 Eileen Wild 24
1940 Thomas Fielding 5
1940 Michael Calverley 5
1940 Jenny Godwin 21
1940 Donald Twiddle 4
1940 William Malone 40
1940 Milbrough E. Marriott 29
1940 Maria N. Wright 11
1940 Bernard Atkinson 4
1940 Ernest Mills 9
1940 Roland Brady 7
1940 John George 32
1940 Sarah Tyrer 27
1940 Kenneth Jackson 17
1940 Burns Bracewell 14
1941 Rosanna Pearce 44
1941 Harry Clegg 49
1941 Nana Bethel 24
1941 Magdalene Healy 9
1941 Clifford Cowburn 23
1941 Douglas Stead 14
1941 Evelyn Mills 13
1941 Harold Hilton 42
1941 Constance McCormac 37
1941 Arthur Davies 43
1941 John F. Culshaw 23
1941 Vincent Rivington 17
1941 William Peggendice 19
1941 Reginald Lawton 18
1941 William A. Nuttall 20
1941 William Waddicor 34
1941 Henry Brown 13
1941 Rachel Chadwick 69
1941 Alice Crook 30
1941 Peter Jones 5
1941 Thomas Hogg 21
1941 Tom Williams 64
1941 Nora Bulfield 14
1942 Richard Chidlow 18
1942 James Howard 18
1942 Evelyn M. Leonard 16
1942 Arthur Pemberton 21
1942 Victor McIntyre 28
1942 Charles Cartridge 29
1942 James Gregson 36
1942 Charles Clarkson 23
1942 Ethel Bailey 27
1942 Elizabeth Dundon 23
1942 Cyril Jones 7
1942 Joan Morrisey 21
1942 Anne Fullerton 59
1943 John Allcock 22
1943 William Grimshaw 34
1943 Marjorie Goss 20
1943 Charles Fowler 21
1943 Gladys Hall 26 or 25
1943 Shirley Pipet 6
1944 George Dean 4
1944 John Baines 16
1944 Thomas McCormick 46
1944 Joyce Bradshaw 21
1944 Mary Jones 53
1944 Margaret Rimmer 58
1944 John Grimsditch 28
1944 James Gough 23
1944 Phyllis Hilton 53
1944 Tom Newell 26
1945 Margaret Keating 59
1945 Mary Galvin 43
1945 Ethel Vickers 61
1945 Irene Keenan 14
1945 William Jennings 20
1945 Sarah Cross 31
1945 William Holland 38
1945 Sophie Field 59
1945 Edward Maher 20
1946 Albert Teague 43
1946 James Kelly 14
1946 Robert Stainton 10
1946 Kenneth Pickles 8
1946 Jean Baker 11
1946 Joseph Thwaites 20
1946 Jean Ball 9
1946 Donald Law 28
1946 John Reid 30
1947 Donald Lewis 12
1947 John Powell 16
1947 Eric Wareing 30
1947 Philip Wilbourne 17
1947 Margaret Fazakerley 52
1947 Mabel Jay 43
1947 Gertrude Rainford 54
1947 William Bainbridge 50
1948 Iris Williams 6
1948 Martha Prince 57
1948 Douglas Finch 24
1948 Roy Davies 24
1948 Colin Gartside 18
1948 Bessie Carroll 32
1948 Bernard McDermott 13
1948 Alexander Hough 44
1948 Elizabeth Stott 66
1949 Louisa Hill 79
1949 Violet Thompson 17
1949 Andrew Gibb 69
1949 Hilda Rayner 28
1949 Francis Greylish 28
1949 Edith Steele 67
1949 Louise Denmead 38
1950 Rebecca Wilson 60
1950 Walter Timperley 25
1950 Freda Winstanley 13
1950 Daisy Birch 32
1950 Susan Harris 34
1950 Letitia Smethurst 50
1950 Frank David 28
1950 Mary Swindells 57
1950 Dorothea Kirkman 28
1950 Arthur Pickford 27
1951 John Crankshaw 8
1951 Kathleen Foley 32
1951 Patricia Loder 13
1951 Francis Hodson 14
1951 Sylvia Gould 27
1951 Hilda Froggatt 52
1951 Lilian Adsey 29
1951 Anne Whiteley 14
1951 Rodney Mills 11
1951 Marion Archer 36
1951 May Taylor 42
1951 Leonard Sturgess 28
1951 Florence Harding 16
1951 Brian Kelly 5
1951 Howard Smith 35
1951 Marjorie Colvin 27
1951 George Superson 1
1951 Arthur Neale 25
1952 Arthur Smith 24
1952 Albert Steele 49
1952 Violet Dolman 31
1952 Edmund Moores 24
1952 Ronald Hodson 15
1952 William Rogers 37
1952 Patricia Burscough 14
1952 Olive Pinches 20
1952 Lorna Chinn 9
1952 Eleonor Thompson 3
1953 Leonard Thornton 14
1953 Colin Bainbridge 15
1953 Jessie Brown 29
1953 Veronica Monk 33
1953 Elsie Williams 48
1953 William Keyton 63
1953 Lillian Mortimer 17
1953 Peter Bentley 11
1953 Peter Murray 20
1953 Ronald Statham 25
1953 John Woolton 11
1953 John Morris 68
1953 Lillian Barber 23
1953 Ellen Morgan 73
1953 Henry Kent 54
1953 Joseph Payne 31
1953 John Lomax 13
1954 Edith Arnold 55
1954 Fred Robinson 53
1954 Flora McDonald 41
1954 Marion Smith 72
1954 Edith Wilson 37
1954 Irene Torrance 47
1954 Maud Parkinson 49
1955 Lesley Thomas 7
1955 Linda Howard 10
1955 Hazel Paddy 38
1955 David Silver 62
1955 Mary Kynock 68
1955 Joseph Rawsthorn 38
1955 Maggie Moss 47
1955 Mary Gibbons 31
1955 Sharon Jones 46
1955 Elsie Knott 60
1955 Alice M. Stretford 64
1956 Mary Humphreys 41
1956 Nora Smith 38
1956 Horatio Gask 27
1956 John Wallace 38
1956 Humphrey Duxbury 52
1956 Michael Lamb 29
1956 George Waterson 22
1956 Robert Swann 31
1956 Irene Atkinson 16
1956 Albert Wilson 42
1957 Robert Tyrer 64
1957 Thomas Forsch 34
1957 Charles Mather 41
1957 Marion Heginbottom 36
1957 Dennis Buckland 21
1957 Emily Stainze 36
1957 Stuart Shirley 27
1957 Louisa Boswell 25
1957 Eric Lomax 31
1957 Florence Sargent 57
1957 Robert Abbott 25
1957 Elizabeth Ferguson 67
1957 Margaret Wright 48
1957 John Roberts 70
1958 William Soames 54
1958 Annie Hacking 56
1958 Ruth Fenton 34
1958 Kathleen Avery 50
1958 Mary Parker 26
1958 Thomas Bayliss 57
1958 Mary Shaw (no age)
1958 Samuel Stockford 56
1958 Edith Cowpe 63
1958 Joseph Bibby 44
1958 George Court 20
1958 Frank Turner 28
1958 Heaton Tweedy 56
1958 Anthony Barratt 26
1958 Charles Fleet 38
1958 Frederick Lightfoot 27
1958 Alan Atkinson 13
1958 Dorothy Townley 62
1958 Mary Ellen Holt 21
1958 Cynthia Miller 8
1958 Brian Hibbert 12
1958 Geoffrey Charnley 32
1958 Gordon Radcliffe 25
1958 Henry Brown 18
1958 Ethel Robinson 45
1958 Emily Hill 79
1959 Francis Allen 17
1959 Ernest Lewis 16
1959 John Sumner 70
1959 Martha Easton 70
1959 John O'Donnell 46
1959 Polly Smith 69
1959 Lawrence Maher 36
1959 Alice Barker 76
1959 William Wright 17
1959 Fred Vost-Cooke 23
1959 David Turner 22
1959 Martin McLaughlin 22
1959 Margaret Haylett 59
1960 Frederick Hindley 50
1960 Roberts Woods 45
1960 Margaret Heys 28
1960 Alberta Reeves 46
1960 Matthew Hilton 49
1960 Frederick Usher 70
1960 Reginald Griffiths 34
1960 George Smith 40
1960 Walter Marshall 27
1960 John Rowlands 55
1960 Bertha Gleave 59
1960 Margaret Murphy 29
1960 Derek Hatton 30
1960 Frederick Hodgson 34
1960 Doris Duffy 58
1960 Maggie Townley 48
1960 Robert Wilson 67
1960 Henry Taylor 32
1960 Lily Morgan 52
1960 Caroline Little 33
1960 Winifred Tinsley 61
1961 Peter Rushton 62
1961 Alice Snay 55
1961 George B. Plummb 30
1961 Robert Cunningham 52
1961 Eric Sharman 9
1961 Edward Barrett 4
1961 Ethel Hayle 73
1961 Bartholomew Ditchfield 54
1961 Ernest Fawcett 50
1961 Mary Casson 72
1961 Eva Jane Lowe 65
1961 Carl Jonathon Sales 7
1961 Gordon Long 30
1961 John Burns 32
1961 Colin Roberts 16
1961 Margaret Eyre 52
1961 Roy Fenton 27
1961 John Wilson 43
1961 Leonie Hodgkinson 76
1962 Bernice Barton 59
1962 Ellis Clifford Blammer 29
1962 Robert Hopwood 38
1962 Jane Kitchen 14
1962 Vivienne Scott 18
1962 Peggy Ashton 15
1962 Maureen Featherston 23
1962 John Green 45
1962 Raymond Walsh 21
1962 Sylus Thomas Robinson 54
1962 Rose Fothergill 60
1962 Margaret Addison 47
1962 Margaret Thompson 39
1962 Margaret Owens 74
1963 Margaret Moore 28
1963 Stanley Ogden 27
1963 Arthur Thornhill 74
1963 Gladys Hall 61
1963 Mary Waterhouse 63
1963 Florence Gorse 72
1963 Thomas Spencer 68
1963 Ethel Travis 66
1963 Peter Hill 65
1963 Alice Hollinworth 34
1963 Edith Fielding 87
1963 Eliza Cross 73
1963 John Ward 29
1963 Harold Brandwood 55
1963 Frank Shuffleton 44
1964 James Morgan 20
1964 Margaret Taylor 58
1964 Joseph McDonnell 38
1964 Colin Chantrell 14
1964 Martin Morse 16
1964 James Swift 82
1964 Bernard Walsh 26
1964 Winifred Stalford 39
1964 Bernard Steele 42
1964 William Yates 57
1964 Sheila Marsden 24
1964 Stephen Hindle 7
1964 Margaret Walton 52
1964 Harry Speight 55
1964 Ada Mannerley 69
1965 Lilian Skiming 74
1965 Nina Roberts 35
1965 Archie Hollinghurst 38
1965 Daniel Shelton 22
1965 Janet Leadbetter 63
1965 Michael Power 13
1965 Doreen Gascoyne 35
1965 Lily Leach 43
1965 Violet Smith 45
1965 Harriet Carter 69
1965 Cuthbert Hindson 31
1965 Dorothy Rogers 43
1965 Constance Lishman 52
1965 Frederick Wedge 33
1965 Ellen Rylance 51
1965 Jean Lacomber 4
1965 Raymond Duxbury 1
1965 Olive Haberfield 50
1965 Amy Clarke 51
1965 Sarah Dempsey 47
1966 Martin Henan 62
1966 Valerie Day 28
1966 Alfred Wilkinson 47
1966 William Hardy 74
1966 Nellie Addison 55
1966 Ethel Rooney 59
1966 Mary Jamieson 67
1966 Eric Edwards 30
1966 John Charles Lubbing 35
1966 Catherine Bourne 64
1966 Esther Ankers 55
1966 Thomas O'Malley 58
1966 James Smith 42
1966 Lilliam Walton 59
1966 Winefride Grady 55
1966 Victor Messham 26
1966 Sarah Jane Webb 70
1966 Margaret Kirkham 85
1966 Jean Audrey Wood 22
1966 James Jolly 52
1966 Nora Cockerill 50
1966 Alexander McGuire 76
1966 Edith Stossell 69
1966 Thomas Roberts 70
1966 Louie Edmonds 29
1966 Robert Edward Dutton 39
1966 James Summerfield 38
1967 Elizabeth Mallard 75
1967 George Henry Roach 58
1967 John Douglas Woodward 33
1967 Sheila Banks 30
1967 Peter Staunton 34
1967 Anthony Kemble 10 mths
1967 Harold Whittaker 52
1967 Rosemary Claire Fagg 19
1967 Thomas David Howells 37
1967 Neville Clarke 32
1967 Margaret Susannah Gornall 71
1967 Gladys Dugmore 55
1967 Christine Brookes 25
1967 William Arthur Copland 19
1967 William Mulcahy 49
1967 Florence Mary Lucy Mabel Dearden 40
1967 William Huffer 57
1967 Louisa Gallop 51
1967 Elizabeth Fallen 31
1967 Sarah Harrison 64
1967 Sylvia Walker 27
1968 Eileen Thelma Bruce 49
1968 John Charles Rimmer 58
1968 Karen Vick 5
1968 Mary Joan Murphy 49
1968 Violet Mary Compton Jones 62
1968 Arthur Locke 53
1968 Richard Horace Mather 45
1968 Betty Jamieson 32
1968 Rose Fullard 45
1968 Paul Cocks 32
1968 Francis Keatings 39
1968 James Edward Byron 22
1968 Arthur Baker 63
1968 Emily Gallaher 76
1968 Alan Pace 20
1968 Norman Wilson 41
1968 Timothy Evans 21
1968 Stanley Ernest Tilsley 63
1968 Jean Kewn 31
1968 Doris Clifton 35
1968 Thomas Douglas Briscoe 44
1968 James Webster Shaw 50
1968 Eleanor Starkey 76
1969 George Jackson 30
1969 William Henry Parkinson 80
1969 Pauline June Gamet 23
1969 William James Perks 44
1969 Norah Brookfield 50
1969 Jane Bennett 47
1969 Leonard Wilson 55
1969 William Roberts 42
1969 George Albert Kershaw 60
1969 Rebecca Flynn 43
1969 John Alan Duffy 18
1969 Ethel Chadwick 68
1969 Edwin Bickerstaffe 64
1969 Robert Dickenson 76
1969 Hilda Mary Hodkinson 57
1969 Clara Wrigley 57
1969 Jean Elwood Fanar 51
1969 Ellen Harrison 46
1969 Raymond Carus 32
1969 Mary Philomena Rossiney 43
1969 Sandra Anne O'Mahoney 27
1969 Vera Fish 49
1969 William O'Keeffe 36
1969 Albert Wintle 41
1969 Thomas Walker 36
1970 Agnes Wilson 70
1970 Albert Mason 72
1970 William Morgan 78
1970 Mary Godfrey 78
1970 John James Nixon 71
1970 Ann Pearson 30
1970 Wendy Alice Modd 7
1970 William Wayne Rennoldson 3
1970 Doris Alice McLellan 47
1971 Ronald George Jones 39
1971 Richard Gaskell 64
1972 Clive James Swift 22
1972 John Radcliffe Caldwell 36
1972 Sylvia Duxbury 22
1972 Luther Duxbury 70
1972 Lilian Riley 38
1972 Daniel Crook 30
1972 Flora Rose 77
1972 Mary Wilkes 52
1972 John Clancy 56
1973 Barbara Kerry Collinson 17
1973 Margaret Tattersall 43
1973 David Francis McGowan 26
1973 Bogumila Theresa Kvcharczyk 23
1974 Beryl Enid Smith 44
1974 Arthur Knapp 56
1974 Roy Coleman 43
1974 Ellen Hall 75
1975 Edith Nall 52
1975 Mary Margaret Burke 28
1975 Frank Smith 40
1975 Catherine Hannah Sayers 75
1975 Florence May Bailey 62
1976 Kenneth Rhodes 48
1976 Ella Mercer 48
1976 George Sherrard Quigley 60
1977 Joan Murphy 28
1977 Ian John Crossey 21
1977 Lilian Humphreys 29
1977 Eileen Dawe 41
1977 Albert Taylor 71
1977 Rebecca Hodgkinson 53
1977 Darren Lee Grundy 7
1977 Sheila Cosgrove 46
1977 Grace Irene Holloway 52
1977 John Andrew Cooper 37
1977 George Haywood 47
1977 James Roberts 77
1978 Edward James Parkinson 62
1978 Andrew Shelley Mills 20
1978 May Sloan 55
1978 Mary Mylett 59
1978 Arnold Hayes 32
1978 Dorothy Ellen Mottram 68
1978 May Porter 85
1978 Harry Brain 33
1978 Barbara Briggs 32
1979 Cyril Valentine Jones 52
1979 Albert Tyrer 46
1979 Michelle Aldersley 18
1979 William Hamilton 54
1979 Olive Bridget Toole 50
1979 Robert James Pilkington 73
1979 Brian Geoffrey Nisbet 27
1979 Gordon William Rainford 58
1979 Elizabeth Ann Neuman 31
1979 Albert Johanson 36
1979 Nancy Synnott 53
1979 Vincent Forshaw 50
1980 Lily Amelia Hainsworth 79
1980 Dorothy Olive Hall Jones 48
1980 John Neal Wignall 57
1980 Veronica McHugh 31
1980 Robert Michael Barron 31
1980 Edward Jack 45
1980 Marjorie Winifred Parkinson 44
1980 Edna Newton 62
1980 Margaret Anne Taylor 56
1980 Phyllis Vickers 50
1980 George Swan 68
1980 John Warburton 61
1980 Mabel Ingham 66
1980 Harley Stanway 65
1980 Robert Fenton 79
1981 Michael Dennis Thorogood 43
1981 Richard Morris 45
1981 John James Martin 68
1981 Robert Andrew McGowan 29
1981 Michael John Anderson 37
1981 Agnes Stevenson 82
1981 Harry Wood 65
1981 Nora Thorniley 67
1981 Bernard Moffat 57
1981 David Kettle 50
1982 David Robinson 41
1982 Joseph Whitworth 57
1982 Christopher Cleaver 29
1982 Leonard Lees 65
1982 Gertrude Tarbuck 55
1983 Agnes McNeilly 75
1983 George Evans 70
1983 Margaret Vera Lilian Franks 73
1983 Bernard O'Neil 63
1984 Ian Leach 20
1984 Alice Howarth 55
1984 John McGonigal 53
1984 May Davies 52
1984 George Henry Mylott 68
1984 Margaret Clayton 46
1984 Mary Irene Brown 64
1984 Mary Elizabeth Cunningham 71
1985 Donald Hickson 53
1985 Thomas Henry Green 61
1985 William Vose 45
1985 Robert Colton 48
1985 Charles Mullineaux 61
1985 Albert Edward Fulham 67
1985 Stanley Bowers 62
1985 Mary Harrison 65
1985 John Edward Kendrick 46
1985 Alice Ann Turton 83
1986 Ada Buckley 83
1986 Karen Pearson 24
1986 Mary Ellen Baron 77
1986 Julia Irene Bloore 43
1986 Gerald Chadwick 58
1986 Arthur Brown 56
1986 Phyllis Mace 77
1986 Rose Kavanagh 61
1987 Doris Gent 75
1987 William O'Brien 83
1987 Roderick Arthur Jones 48
1987 Elaine Scranney 36
1987 Rowland Frederick Mottram 54
1988 Ernest Metcalfe 67
1988 Frank Crabtree 60
1988 Bernard Palmer 58
1988 Doris Evelyn Ginever 72
1996 Ada Bury 99

This name is not on the memorial but is on a memorial stone on the right hand side of the drive leading to the cemetery. The inscription reads: 'In Memory John David Winchester 9th December 1941 - 6th May 1978'.

1978 John David Winchester  

Langho Colony

Langho Colony was close to Brockhall Hospital. Brenda Harry has kindly sent me some recollections of her friend Winnie whose father was Bailiff at Langho Colony:

Thomas Gillett came from a farming family in Mellor. In 1914, when he was in his twenties, he became a Bailiff at Langho Colony. His job was looking after the farm which supplied milk to the Manchester hospitals. But he also had another "job". Many of the poor inmates of Langho Colony had been sent there, where they were shut off from families and friends in Manchester who could not afford to visit them. They were allowed just one night out a week, when they went into Whalley for a Saturday night jaunt. Later in the evening Thomas, would take his horse and hay-making cart down to Langho railway station, where he had to count the inmates and make sure that all those who had gone out, were coming back. On the way home, sitting on the floor of the cart, the inmates would heartily sing the following ditty, that Thomas, when he married, would often sing at Gillett family gatherings, which is why his daughter, Winnie Taylor remembers it still word for word, many decades later.

One Two three the boozers keep time
The washhouse and laundry
They go in a line
Working like horses
It's hotter than hell
It's a grand institution
The Langho "Hotel"

(There is a small memorial to the residents of Langho Centre in the Old Langho churchyard - I've guessed that is Langho Colony but I don't know.)