1850: the Cemetery

On this day in 1850 Bishop George Brown of Liverpool blessed the new St Peter's cemetery. As yet there was no school, convent or church on the site. Canon Billington gives a few short paragraphs on the cemetery, noting that the site was improved by the government inspector and laid out according to his instructions; he also notes that four Masses are to be said each year for those buried in the cemetery. The central cross is not the original, he tells us: "A cross, designed by Mr. Paley, was erected in the centre of the ground in 1851. After it was blown down by a storm in 1896 it was replaced by a new one in 1899, the gift of Mr. Richard Smith." Billington notes that by 1886 nearly all the burial plots were sold and most Catholics were after that time buried in the public cemetery, a portion of which was reserved for Catholics and blessed by the Bishop around November 1855.