Grave Goings-On

[escargot]

Yes I'm sure you're right. My mate's sister did Law at Kings in the early 80's and went to work for Brent Council (London) - her first task was to determine the correct procedure to deconsecrate and secularise an old disused Church yard so it could be converted into playing fields. The problem being local by-laws stretching into antiquity that forbad the playing of fooballe on Church grounds.

A house in my home town has a clause in the deeds forbidding the holding of boxing matches on the premises. Seems things could get rowdy in Victorian times.

 

[PeteS]

I grew up living right by Christ’s Church in the village of Adlington, Lancs and the graveyard was pretty much our playground as kids.....that and the railway line that ran right alongside it! Just before we moved out of the village the church was decommissioned (if that’s the correct term....desanctified??) and was turned into a curry house of some sort. The gravestones were removed in order to create somewhere to park and, so I’m led to believe, subsequently disposed of in Morecombe Bay. Quite why the gravestones were disposed of in that manner, I have no idea but the bodies were not uprooted from their resting places which I have always thought was rather questionable. I wonder if the patrons dining there were aware that they had parked up on the final resting place of so many corpses? I supposed uprooting the bodies and relocating or disposing of them was prohibitively too difficult and/or expensive.

Adlington used to be quite picturesque, but seems to have deteriorated somewhat over the years ( I lived just down the A6 in the next village). Or am I looking through backward looking rose tinted specs?

 

[Mythopoeika]

A house in my home town has a clause in the deeds forbidding the holding of boxing matches on the premises. Seems things could get rowdy in Victorian times.

I'm guessing it was a pub at some time in its past.

 

[escargot]

I'm guessing it was a pub at some time in its past.

No, it's always been a private house.

It's in a small street which was quite grand at one time. All the houses there have three floors and big gardens, and at one time the street was fenced off and only residents and approved visitors were allowed in.

All the houses have big cellars from some of which businesses were run, and at some point boxing competitions were held in one. One assumes the posh neighbours didn't approve.

So maybe when the house was sold by the boxing entrepreneurs the next owners added the clause, I dunno.

 

[Sgt Girth]

Adlington used to be quite picturesque, but seems to have deteriorated somewhat over the years ( I lived just down the A6 in the next village). Or am I looking through backward looking rose tinted specs?

Ah, I couldn’t really comment as I haven’t really seen the place for the best part of 30 years! Were you towards the Upper Adlington or Lower Adlington end of the village? For such a small place it was strangely split in two.
I believe that Wikipedia once listed Adlington as being the inspiration for the village of Royston Vasey on The League of Gentlemen series...... I can totally see that!

 

[Tribble]

I believe that Wikipedia once listed Adlington as being the inspiration for the village of Royston Vasey on The League of Gentlemen series...... I can totally see that!

Still does.

It is widely believed that a lot of the characters and indeed the town are based on Pemberton's home town of Chorley, with Royston Vasey based on Adlington, a village within Chorley Borough[citation needed] . A second source of inspiration is the town of Alston in Cumbria

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Gentlemen#Writing_and_inspiration

 

[David Plankton]

A second source of inspiration is the town of Alston in Cumbria

Alston's a weird little town. About thirty years ago there were four of us going camping in the Lakes, and Alston was where we stopped off for a break from driving. We parked up somewhere and as soon as we got out of the car a man dressed in something that was a bit like a police uniform came up to us and said, "You've got one hour and then I want you out of town" in a very menacing way.
We couldn't decide if he was police or not, but we were gone long before an hour was up.

There also seems to be a very poor mobile phone signal there - I was back just a couple of years ago - and the main cafe just off the market cross doesn't take card payments, just cash. No signs or notices warn you of this, they wait until you're ready to settle up and leave before telling you, acting as if it's a really strange way to pay for something. Well it is in Alston, I suppose.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Alston's a weird little town. About thirty years ago there were four of us going camping in the Lakes, and Alston was where we stopped off for a break from driving. We parked up somewhere and as soon as we got out of the car a man dressed in something that was a bit like a police uniform came up to us and said, "You've got one hour and then I want you out of town" in a very menacing way.
We couldn't decide if he was police or not, but we were gone long before an hour was up.

Traffic warden?

 

[Spudrick68]

Adlington, like Blackrod, was a place that I only ever passed through on the train from Leyland to somewhere in a Southerly direction.

 

[RaM]

Alston, me and a mate had to visit once, once was enough, it was weird.

 

[David Plankton]

Traffic warden?

No, not that either. More like a Johnny Morris zookeeper's get up.

 

[Sgt Girth]

Back in the day, Adlington had a surprisingly large number of public houses where, in many of them, it was quite acceptable to have a cheeky lager or two even as scrawny 15 year olds.....just as long as you behaved yourselves. Even the local plod, if they saw you quietly drinking, would let you be. Before graduating to the pubs however the owners of the local Off License were quite happy to sell us those big bottles of Woodpecker cider that we used to neck on the village recreation grounds...getting hilariously drunk in the process and then going on to create the kinds of stupidity that only pissed up adolescents can specialise in.

 

[maximus otter]

Last time I looked into...exhumation...

There’s a sentence one doesn’t often see.

maximus otter

 

[PeteS]

Ah, I couldn’t really comment as I haven’t really seen the place for the best part of 30 years! Were you towards the Upper Adlington or Lower Adlington end of the village? For such a small place it was strangely split in two.
I believe that Wikipedia once listed Adlington as being the inspiration for the village of Royston Vasey on The League of Gentlemen series...... I can totally see that!

Lived in Blackrod then Westhoughton. I never heard of the Royston Vasey connection, certainly doesn't fit the Adlington I knew.

 

[Mythopoeika]

There’s a sentence one doesn’t often see.

maximus otter

They don't... bring it up... very often.

 

[maximus otter]

They don't... bring it up... very often.

maximus otter

 

[PeteS]

Alston's a weird little town. About thirty years ago there were four of us going camping in the Lakes, and Alston was where we stopped off for a break from driving. We parked up somewhere and as soon as we got out of the car a man dressed in something that was a bit like a police uniform came up to us and said, "You've got one hour and then I want you out of town" in a very menacing way.
We couldn't decide if he was police or not, but we were gone long before an hour was up.

There also seems to be a very poor mobile phone signal there - I was back just a couple of years ago - and the main cafe just off the market cross doesn't take card payments, just cash. No signs or notices warn you of this, they wait until you're ready to settle up and leave before telling you, acting as if it's a really strange way to pay for something. Well it is in Alston, I suppose.

Alston sounded familiar to me and I had to do a quick satellite look to see where it was. I'm a bit of a petrol head and about 10 years ago I went to see a car for sale on the outskirts of Alston. On the phone I could only get one word answers from the seller, but agreed an appointment to go look. Elderly chap answered the door, didn't speak, pointed me to the car at the side of the house and then promptly slammed the door! I had a look, decided I wanted it, but the guy would neither answer the phone or come to the door again! Somewhat peeved after waiting another half hour with no response, I shoved a rather sarcastic note through his letter box and drove off.
I wasn't aware of the connection to RV, but now assume it was meant to be a local car for local people. Just bizarre.

 

[ramonmercado]

Alston: twinned with Cromer.

 

[David Plankton]

Alston sounded familiar to me and I had to do a quick satellite look to see where it was. I'm a bit of a petrol head and about 10 years ago I went to see a car for sale on the outskirts of Alston. On the phone I could only get one word answers from the seller, but agreed an appointment to go look. Elderly chap answered the door, didn't speak, pointed me to the car at the side of the house and then promptly slammed the door! I had a look, decided I wanted it, but the guy would neither answer the phone or come to the door again! Somewhat peeved after waiting another half hour with no response, I shoved a rather sarcastic note through his letter box and drove off.
I wasn't aware of the connection to RV, but now assume it was meant to be a local car for local people. Just bizarre.

This odd little town might warrant further investigation. Interesting image dated 2018, of a 1950's timeslip chemist shop in Alston -




Also found out through looking on the internet that the Market Cross in Alston has twice been destroyed and rebuilt again after being hit by a truck in 1968 and 1980.
It's unclear as to whether it was the same truck/driver on both occasions, but it can't be ruled out.

 

[Frideswide]

There used to be a couple of good secondhand bookshops in Alston

 

[escargot]

@titch might like this thread.

 

[Coypu]

https://alstonmoorhistoricalsociety.org.uk/alston_stories/?post=conundrum

 

[RaM]

Went there on a rally a few years back

 

[titch]

Last time I looked into it the cost was about £1000 per exhumation and the graves had to be at least 100 years old.

I took part in a double exhumation a few years ago, no idea how much it cost, but I got paid £850 for doing it, the graves where from the 1980s.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

I took part in a double exhumation a few years ago, no idea how much it cost, but I got paid £850 for doing it, the graves where from the 1980s.

Del Boy would have done it for half the price. "Grandad grab a shovel..."

 

[hunck]

I took part in a double exhumation a few years ago, no idea how much it cost, but I got paid £850 for doing it, the graves where from the 1980s.

Was it a police case - what were the circumstances? I imagine you'd need an extraordinary reason for an exhumation.

 

[escargot]

Was it a police case - what were the circumstances? I imagine you'd need an extraordinary reason for an exhumation.

What happens in the cemetery stays in the cemetery, eh, @titch!

 

[titch]

Was it a police case - what were the circumstances? I imagine you'd need an extraordinary reason for an exhumation.

Not a police case, not even what I would consider a valid reason, a member of the family was moving to Israel and wanted his parents to come with him.

 

[Coypu]

Not a police case, not even what I would consider a valid reason, a member of the family was moving to Israel and wanted his parents to come with him.

Didn't he realize they were dead.

 

[Bad Bungle]

Not a police case, not even what I would consider a valid reason, a member of the family was moving to Israel and wanted his parents to come with him.

Would that be cargo or hand luggage ?