Inventors, a steeplejack and an unfortunate lion tamer - 6 of Bolton's most interesting burials

In the town’s burial grounds lay the legacy of people who have helped the town achieve greatness and fame, or perhaps just made people's lives a little better during their short time on this mortal coil.

With 415,000 burial and cremation records for Bolton’s cemeteries now available online, the digital age has made their histories more accessible than ever.

Website Deceased Online, contains burial and cremation records searchable by name and date, as well as accurate maps indicating each occupant of Bolton’s sprawling cemeteries.

So, from great leaders and inventors to self-made men and one unfortunate lion tamer, we present six of Bolton’s late sons and where you can pay your respects to them and the impact they made on the town.

Richard Gray from Deceased Online said: "We have users of the website from 94 countries globally as so many are interested in these wonderful records. 

"Many of the registers give details of occupations, full names, addresses, age at death etc, so there is a rich cultural history for locations such as Bolton, Blackburn and other areas in the North West as well as many areas in the UK.

"Users can search the website free, with a small fee payable if they want to download a specific document such as a burial register scan or a cemetery map.

"I recently met a woman from Greenwich in South East London who found on Deceased Online loads of ancestors in the Bolton area she didn't know about, so took a holiday in Bolton to visit the cemeteries and graves!"

So, from great leaders and inventors to self-made men and one unfortunate lion tamer, we present six of Bolton’s late sons and where you can pay your respects to them and the impact they made on the town.

Astley Bridge Cemetery is an eight-acre cemetery opened in 1884, featuring a Grade II listed chapel, 47 graves from both world wars and various graves of civic dignitaries.

Among them are three of Bolton's mayors: Benjamin Kirkman, Robert Demaine and Henry Warburton.

Henry Warburton (1865-1936) was a cotton waste dealer in Kestor Street, Bolton and the nephew of Thomas Warburton, founder of Warburton’s bakers.

He left school aged 15 and went to work for his father at his late uncle’s bakery and grocery business in Prospect Street.

Henry later took over the business and also became chairman of Bolton Wanderers FC in 1930.

When he was buried at Astley Bridge cemetery, his coffin was carried by Wanderers playing staff.

Wife and mayoress, Rachel, was also a keen football fan. The then Bolton Evening News reported an incident in which she accosted a Wanderers trainer at Burnden Park wanting to know why players were missing penalties.

Challenged that she didn’t appreciate the difficulties involved, Rachel promptly stuck three past the trainer from the spot.

Heaton Cemetery is the largest cemetery in area, where numerous grand memorials reflect Bolton’s growing wealth during the industrial revolution.

Among them is William Crumblehulme, who was born into a poor family in the Folds Road area of Bolton. He learned to read and write at Sunday School and the Mechanics Institute before finding work as a travelling salesman for a Hilton and Brown foundry through friends involved in the Temperance Society.

He later went into business for himself, founding Crumblehulme and Sons with his young family. The business made all sorts of items including stoves and kitchen ranges. The business developed the Derby Iron Works in Rothwell Street and won a contract to install a new heating system at the Woolwich Arsenal. Upon William’s death in 1910, he was interred in the family vault in Heaton Cemetery.

Tonge Cemetery The first municipal cemetery in Bolton when it opened on New Year’s Eve 1856, Tonge is a Grade II listed site. Its landscape designer William Henderson also designed Corporation Park in Blackburn, Alexandra Park in Oldham as well as Bolton’s Queens Park.

Fred Dibnah was buried at Tonge Cemetery in 2004. The steeplejack became a cult TV personality and much-loved son of Bolton with a series of popular programmes chronicling the North West’s industrial heritage. Born in Bolton in 1938, he was fascinated as a child by the huge steam engines used to power the textile mills that helped place the town at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. The Workshops, buildings and projects at Fred’s former home in Radcliffe Road, are now preserved as a heritage centre dedicated to his legacy.

A curious burial record at Tonge Cemetery is for Thomas McCarte – a lion tamer with the visiting Manders Menagerie circus who, on January 3 1872, began his final performance in Bolton. Having already lost an arm while working with Bell and Myers’ circus in Liverpool, McCarte was billed as ‘Massarti the Lion Tamer’ for his Bolton show, which was to be his final performance. His gruesome death was recorded in the Bolton Evening News and was even reprinted in the New York Times.

John Fawcett was buried at Tonge Cemetery in 1867. He was a self-taught musician and composer who wrote many popular psalms in the early 19th century. He became an apprentice shoemaker and while living in Kendal taught himself to read music and mastered the flute. He was appointed choirmaster at Kendal parish church aged 28, he moved to Farnworth and ran the choir and band at the Wesleyan Sunday School.

The burial register at the Parish Church of St Peter date back as far as 1573, though there has been a place of worship on the site since Saxon times, fragments of which can be viewed in the church’s museum corner.

Probably the most famous Boltonian buried at the church is Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule. The device made it possible to spin cotton more quickly and efficiently, revolutionising the industry. The son of a caretaker at Hall I’ th’ Wood, Samuel worked in secret on his device for five years but made comparatively little from his world-changing invention because he lacked a patent for it. Having earlier married at Bolton Parish Church he was buried there upon his death in 1827.

Elsewhere in Bolton lay Westhoughton, Farnworth and Blackrod cemeteries.

Westhoughton opened in 1858, features 19 war graves from both world wars of casualties from both the UK and Canada.

Among its memorials is one for the victims of the Hulton Colliery disaster (pictured) in 1910 - Britain’s third worst mining disaster in which 344 miners lost their lives in a large underground explosion at Pretoria Pit, Hulton.

Farnworth Cemetery, situated next to Moses Gate Country Park, opened in 1876, while Blackrod Cemetery – the smallest of the cemeteries managed by Bolton Council, dates from 1887 and featuring a war memorial and a number of war graves.

The most recently opened of the council-operated burial grounds is Overdale crematorium. The busiest of all the sites, it was opened in 1954 and averages 3,500 cremations per year.

Have you discovered any interesting Bolton facts or details of your family’s history by researching burial records?

Let us know your stories in comments.