FORD�CEMETERY�WAS OPENED�BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF LIVERPOOL IN 1859.�

Initially, applications for graves had to be made to the Cemetery itself but by the early 1860s an office was opened at 16 Manchester Street in the town centre. This office was open every morning, except Sunday, from 10am until 1pm.

Private graves could be purchased at various prices ranging from �3 10s to �10 10s�"depending on situation". The price varied within any given section. By�1899�only five separate sections have been opened for private burials. A plan of the Cemetery showing when each section was opened is available.

Public graves, otherwise referred to as 'single interments' cost 14s 6d�for adults, 9s 6d�for children under 12 years and 6s for children under�7 years.��

By 1989�over 300,000 people had been buried at Ford Cemetery. The majority of these were buried in public graves until 1948 when the Labour government introduced burial grants and the public burials fell to single figures per year. There were no pauper burials (ie burials paid for by the Parish authorities) in Ford.

YEARS PRIVATE BURIALS PUBLIC BURIALS TOTAL BURIALS

1859-1900
13,323 112,815 126,138

1901-1948
52,103 93,154 145,267

1949-1989
31,601 77 31,678

1859-1989
97,027 206,046 303,083

YEARS Under 7 years Under 12 years All 'children' Adults TOTAL BURIALS

1859-1900
64,336 3,003 67,339 58,799 126,138

1901-1948
56,997 2,777 59,774 85,493 145,267

1949-1989
1,400 144 1,544 30,134 31,678

1859-1989
174,426 5,924 128,657 122,733 303,083

�MORE DETAILLED TABLES AND CHARTS�OF THE NUMBER OF�BURIALS PER� YEAR�ARE AVAILABLE.

A Via Crucis or Stations of the Cross was consecrated on 25th September 1859. The cemetery was opened in 1855 but no records of burial exist prior to 1859. The first reference to the cemetery so far located is in the minutes of the Liverpool Burial Board, 30th August 1856.

Mr Churchwarden Woodruff reported his having visited the Roman Catholic Cemetery distant about three quarters of a mile from the Seaforth Station and been informed by the Reverend Thomas Newsham that it would be sold by the Trustees of the Cemetery at �200 per acre, that as much adjoining land for enlarging it as would be required may be purchased from the Earl of Sefton; that Dr Sutherland had reported favourably of the Land which consists of about 24 acres, is licensed, and contains about 100 bodies buried one in each grave.

The cemetery chapel of the Holy Sepulchre was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin (THE CEMETERY IS PROJECT H9 AND THE CHAPEL IS PROJECT A28.) and was consecrated in 1861. The chapel was also used by the local Catholic community (population 406 c.1900) as their parish church. Marriages and baptisms were performed there as well as funeral services. It was situated in Section Q and when it was demolished in the 1990s a memorial to those buried in unmarked graves within the cemetery was erected on the site.

ALL SOULS Church was opened in Collingwood Street, just off Scotland Road in Liverpool, in 1872 for use as a Mortuary Chapel. The church was open every day at 1.30pm so coffins could be left there. According to the Catholic Almanac,

About the year 1865 a Liverpool merchant, who was not a Catholic, conceived the idea of erecting a Mortuary Chapel to which relatives and friends might convey the bodies of the departed and offer up prayers for their repose. the idea by the aid of other merchants of the town was carried into effect, and All Souls' was opened in 1870. It is a curiously devised building. The middle of the Church is separated from the two Side Aisles and the Altar by a glass partition, hermetically sealed, extending from floor to ceiling. In this part of the Church, to which access can only be had through a separate door from the street, are placed the bodies of the departed. the hearse from Ford Cemetery on three days of the week conveys the bodies left there to their last resting place at Ford. The Side Aisles approached by separate doors serve for the accommodation of the congregation.

The cemetery hearse would leave from All Souls at 2pm on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It would arrive at Ford Cemetery in time for the funeral service which would be held at 3pm at the cemetery chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. A 3pm funeral service was held every day for those who had made their own transport arrangements. Services could be held at other hours by prior arrangement.