Campaigners to host hospital cemetery open day

Campaigners who are raising awareness of a Lancashire cemetery are holding a guided tour later.

The Friends of Calderstones and Brockhall Hospitals Cemeteries group is holding the event at the former Calderstones Hospital Cemetery near Whalley from 14:00 BST.

The site has graves of asylum and hospital patients, Manchester children evacuated there in World War Two and military servicemen.

Visitors will also see military graves at the adjoining Queen Mary's Military Hospital, including the graves of servicemen killed in both world wars.

The event coincides with a national project called Love Your Burial Ground, supported by churches and the Diocese of Blackburn.

It also follows a recent decision by the Bishop of Blackburn that a small portion of land at the Calderstones Hospital cemetery can be de-consecrated but most of the land should keep its religious status and be restored.

The cemetery served the old hospital there from about 1915 to 2000.

More than 1,100 people were buried there or had their ashes placed there over the years, it is understood.

But the site's future status, plans by developers for a crematorium and car park, the site's physical state in recent years and the controversial removal of many headstones have been the focus of concerns by the friends' group and also raised at Ribble Valley Council meetings.

Councillor Mark Hindle, as mayor last year, raised the site's condition and people's concerns a number of times.

He emphasised the sensitive nature of the various issues.

Separately, the authority has received planning applications for the site over recent years for proposals such as a new crematorium.

Campaigners say the military war graves site is well-kept but the old hospital site, sold by the NHS about 20 years ago and then passed through through different private owners, is in poor condition.

They want to safeguard and restore plots, where possible, and highlight the many stories of people laid to rest there.

The Calderstones site includes graves of the Booth Hall Babies – unwell children who were evacuated there from Booth Hall Hospital in Blackley, Manchester, when World War Two began.

And patients at the old Calderstones asylum included people with learning disabilities and women who became pregnant outside marriage.

Campaigners said the former hospital's history, like other institutions, highlighted changing attitudes and society's treatment of women, girls, pregnancy, sex outside marriage and adoption.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas to [email protected]