HISTORY OF THE GRAVEYARD

The original Wainsgate burial ground was adjacent to the chapel, but by the end of the nineteenth century space for burials was running out. Additional land was purchased  in 1901 to extend the graveyard to the south and east, and the first burials in the new graveyard were in 1906.
 
There is an ongoing project to record all of the burials at Wainsgate, including transcribing and photographing headstones and plotting grave locations. There are believed to be over 1,000 graves and around 3,500 people buried at Wainsgate. The earliest burials recorded at Wainsgate date from around 1760, and the graveyard is still in use for burials and interment of ashes.
 
Historical records (burial registers, receipt books etc.) are kept by the Hebden Bridge Local History Society in their archive at Birchcliffe.

SOME NOTABLE PEOPLE BURIED AT WAINSGATE

 

Rev. Dr John Fawcett (1740 – 1817) – Minister at Wainsgate from 1763 – 1777. Baptist minister,  theologian and composer of the well known hymn ‘Blest be the Tie that Binds our Hearts in Christian Love’.

More here

 

 

 

Josiah Wade (1842 – 1908) – born into a poor family in Hebden Bridge, he invented and manufactured the ‘Arab’ printing press, and was Mayor of Halifax from 1902 to 1904.

Read more about Josiah Wade here

 

John Kitchen (1825 – 1895) – shoemaker, music teacher, piano seller, tuner and repairer. Composed several hymns and anthems and the oratorio ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’.

 

 

Harry Sculthorpe (1923 – 2008) – involved with the Freedom Press, publishers of the only anarchist newspaper published nationally in the UK. His epitaph reads ‘he lived for freedom’.

WAR DEAD

Twenty-seven men who died in the two world wars are commemorated at Wainsgate, including three who are buried in the graveyard. There is a marble memorial and photograph inside the chapel commemorating the eleven who died in WW1 who were connected with the church and Sunday school.

 

Find out more here