Le parc sur un ancien cimetiere, Morley Road, Rhyl

Le parc sur un ancien cimetiere, Morley Road, Rhyl

Morley Road Park occupe un terrain où se trouvait un cimetière à l’époque victorienne. Voyez ci-dessous l’histoire de certaines des personnes enterrées ici.

Les origines de ce cimetière ont été sujettes à controverse. Un propriétaire terrien local avait fait don à la ville d’un terrain pour y faire un cimetière public. On a formé un comité d’ecclésiastiques non- conformistes et anglicans, mais la presse locale a rapporté que « grâce à quelque procédure habile », l’Eglise se l’était approprié, bien que la majorité de la population soit non-conformiste. Et ceci a causé une bonne dose d’hostilité.

Le mercredi 15 juin 1859, à trois heures de l’après-midi, des centaines de personnes se sont rassemblées au nouveau cimetière pour assister à la consécration de cette terre par l’évêque de St Asaph. Le premier enterrement qui a eu lieu cet après-midi-là, était celui du corps de William Williams, 15 mois, fils de Joseph Williams du 13 Sussex Street.

A la fin des années 1880, le cimetière était plein et on n’y creusait plus de nouvelles tombes, bien que des enterrements aient continué jusqu’à la fin des années 1930, dans des tombes déjà existantes. Les Rhyl Improvement Commissioners ont entamé des négociations pour acheter 3,75 hectares de terre sur Dyserth Road et en faire un cimetière municipal, financé par les contribuables. Et ainsi a commencé une autre dispute, semblable à celle de 1859, entre l’Eglise et l’Eglise non-conformiste—dont le résultat est la création de deux cimetières, le « Church Cemetery » et le « Town Cemetery » sur les côtés opposés de Dyserth Street.

En 1967-68, Morley Road Cemetery a été aménagé en parc. Les inscriptions qui étaient sur les tombes ont été enregistrées et indexées, et on a fait un plan du cimetière. On peut consulter un Book of Remembrance qui rassemble ces informations à la Rhyl Library (Bibliothèque de Rhyl), au Museum Arts Centre.

On a redessiné le parc en 2006 et il a été inauguré le 26 mai de cette année-là par le maire de Rhyl, Brian Blakeley, et Pauline Dobb du conseil régional du Denbighshire.

Avec tous nos remerciements à Ruth Pritchard, du Rhyl History Club

Code postal : LL18 3HG    Carte

FOOTNOTES: Individuals buried here

Schoolboys Richard and John Edwards were buried here after they and a friend, John Thomas Jones, drowned in a bathing accident.

The boys, aged 11 to 13, left school on Friday afternoon 7 June 1878 and were intent on bathing. The Edwards brothers lived with their parents Richard and Amelia at Plastirion Terrace. The boys entered the sea opposite their home, after walking past bathing-machine manager William Vaughan, who was up a ladder painting at the time.

Mary Jones, visiting from St Asaph, noticed the boys jumping in the seawater as she sat knitting on the sand hills. She alerted Mr Vaughan when she looked at the sea again and saw only three piles of clothes. He mounted a horse and rode to the spot. Three days later, he told the inquest the boys had drowned because of the southerly wind and outgoing tide and the boys missing their footing. John Thomas Jones was buried in Llanrwst.

Station master Thomas Winston sold the first ever train ticket for travel from Rhyl on 1 May 1848. He was born in Ewell, Surrey, in 1815 and buried here after his death in Rhyl on 29 June 1889. After retiring, he returned to the station booking office on 1 May every year to sell a ticket to a passenger.

His roles included: Rhyl Commissioner; raising funds to build St Thomas’ Church; and director of Rhyl Promenade Pier Co, the town’s gas company and the Rhyl Cocoa House Co. He served 18 years on the board of guardians for St Asaph workhouse.

In 1877 he gave Rhyl a granite animal drinking trough which stood for nearly 100 years in Queen Street.  It was inscribed with: “A gift from a friend to animals”.  The trough is now outside Bodrhyddan Hall.

He is remembered in St Thomas’ Church with a stained glass window and a brass plaque describing him as a “true Christian Philanthropist”. 

Shipbuilder Robert Jones was born in Rhuddlan c.1817. He built ships in Rhuddlan before moving the business to the Foryd, Rhyl. 

The old Foryd shipbuilding yard was roughly opposite Pont y Ddraig and extended southwest in an arc towards Wellington Road. Over the years at least 33 sailing ships were built there. They included flat-bottomed coasters, barques, brigs, brigantines, schooners and fully rigged ships.

Robert Jones started a Methodist Sunday School in 1859 on board a moored boat.  As numbers increased, the school moved to his large moulding loft. Eventually premises were built in Warren Road, where the present red brick Salem chapel now stands. Robert Jones is remembered on a plaque at the chapel.

He died, aged 54, of a stroke on 5 May 1871 and was succeeded by his son, also called Robert Jones. Robert Jones senior is buried here along with his wife and daughter.

The Rev George Ash Butterton was 60 years old when he arrived in Rhyl in 1866. After his wife Sarah died that year, he threw himself into public life. His roles included: member of the Rhyl Improvement Commissioners; Flintshire magistrate; director of Rhyl Winter Gardens; chairman of directors of the Rhyl Hydropathic Company (Claremont); and president of Rhyl Liberal Association.

He had been ordained in 1838 and obtained his Doctor of Divinity in 1848. He was headmaster at Uppingham School 1837-47, then at Giggleswick School until 1862 and Rector of Cleobury North until 1866. He died, aged 86, in 1891 and is buried in this cemetery with Sarah.

An obituary commented that “the kindly and genial countenance of Dr Butterton will be remembered for many years to come”. Butterton Road in Rhyl was named after him while he was still alive.