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Hidden heritage to be revealed

Katherine Vine
5/ 9/2008

Take a closer look at some of Trafford’s secrets of the past with a series of Heritage Open Days next weekend.

Walkden Gardens, St Paul’s Parish Church and the Ashton & Sale History Society are holding events on Saturday, September 13 to coincide with the national Heritage Open Days scheme, which runs from September 11 to 14.

Ashton & Sale History Society will be running free guided tours of Sale and Brooklands Cemetery, on Marsland Road.

And Len Weeden, who will conduct the tours, said the graveyard contains all manner of hidden gems.

Len said: "The cemetery opened in 1862 as a direct result of the Burial Act of 1853, when burials in old, overcrowded churchyards were becoming both unsanitary and undignified."

It was one of the first municipal cemeteries in Manchester and, as such, became the final resting place of many famous people, including Dr Richard Pankhurst, lawyer and husband of Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, the inventor of microphotography John Benjamin Dancer and Victorian actor Charles Alexander Calvert.

"Another less known but rather intriguing burial is that of Alfred Knowles, a friend and colleague of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx," Len added. "Knowles supplied information of the cotton industry for Marx’s Communist manifesto Das Kapital."

Two tours are planned at 10.30am and 2.30pm – to book a place ring Len on 0161 962 6745

Also lying in rest at the cemetery is scientist and ‘father of modern physics’ James Prescott Joule, who is also linked to an event at St Paul’s Parish Church, on Springfield Road.

One of his descendents, professional storyteller Helen Stewart, will give a reading at the church at 2pm. Helen, who lives in Sale, said: "My maiden name was Joule, and my family has always lived in the area – my great grandfather was a vet in Salford."

Helen, who performed at the Womad and Big Chill music festivals earlier this year, said: "I tend to use traditional stories and tried and tested tales that have been heard before."

Meanwhile, the Friends of Walkden Gardens and Sale Civic Society will hold various activities in the park from 11am to 4pm, with free admission.

The historic Dovecote will be open, with an illustrated display of its origins, rescue and rebuilding, and there will be guided tours of the gardens, children’s game, and a range of refreshments.