New Collection: Cheshire East

More records for county of Cheshire as Cheshire East Collection (1861-2015) is added to the Deceased Online database.

Coppenhall Cemetery, Cheshire

As someone who grew in Lancashire, I am delighted that Deceased Online has extended its North West England collection with the addition of burial and cremation records from neighbouring Cheshire East.

Deceased Online has recently digitised burial and cremation data for the south part of the Cheshire East Council area, managed by Orbitas Bereavement Services. This covers the following sites:

Congleton Cemetery (500 records) 2004 - 2015
Coppenhall Cemetery (10,400 records) 1861 - 2015
Crewe Cemetery (51,750 records) 1872 - 2015
Nantwich Cemetery (11,150 records) 1870 - 2015
Sandbach Cemetery (3,950 records) 1935 - 2015
Weston Cemetery (1,150 records) 1908 - 2015
Crewe Crematorium (52,100 records) 1937 - 2009 (+ 1 record from 1945)

History

The oldest records in this collection come from the mid-Victorian Coppenhall Cemetery. Covering 9.44 acres, the cemetery was designed for the villagers of Monks Coppenhall, close to what would be become the railway town of Crewe. In January 1915, the burial took place of 29 year old twin brothers John and Henri Villiers-Russell who were killed on the 1st January while serving as Senior Reserve Attendants in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve aboard HMS Formidable. They had joined up only a few days after war was declared in August 1914. Their bodies were washed up on a beach at Lyme Regis taken to be buried in Coppenhall - close to the home of their mother, Isabelina Villiers-Russell of 17 Audley Street, Crewe.

For those who aren't familiar with the area, it may be useful to know that Coppenhall and Crewe cemeteries are immediately opposite each other separated by Broad Street.

Famous Graves

I was interested to learn that Nantwich Cemetery is the resting place of Thomas Wainwright (1876 - 13 May 1949). Like my relation, the England international Joe Smith, Wainwright played for Port Vale and Crewe Alexandra clubs. He was older than Smith, though, playing between 1900 and 1906.

Born in Nantwich, Wainwright began work as a boot clicker. He joined Burslem Port Vale in 1900 and Crew Alexandra in 1902. Football wages and careers were not what they are today and after leaving the pitch, Wainwright worked as an engineering labourer. He married and had five children. His wife and one daughter are buried with him at Nantwich.

Sandbach Cemetery ((c) Orbitas)

Summary

The latest additions covering the Cheshire East (southern) area include around 131,000 records in total.
These complement 200,000 records from Cheshire West, which are already on the Deceased Online database.
The sites in the northern part of the Cheshire East area (based around Macclesfield) will be uploaded to the database in due course.

Other Cheshire records in the database are:

Overleigh Old Cemetery and the newer Overleigh Cemetery
Chester Parish Church, Middlewich (1807-1892)in The National Archives RG 37 collection
St Michael's Church Burial Ground, Chester (1801-1819) in the RG 37 collection
Chester Crematorium, Chester (from 1965)
Blacon Cemetery, Chester (from 1941)
Neston Cemetery, Neston (from 1906)
Overpool Cemetery, Ellesmore Port (from 1913)
Wharton Cemetery, Winsford (from 1990)

The North West England collection also includes records from the historic county of Lancashire.

Over 100,000 records in the latest collection come from Crewe. This town is probably most associated with the railway, with its 1837 railway station standing as one of the most historic in the world. In next week's blog, I shall be looking deeper into the Crewe burial records, exploring the lives of individuals associated with the town's locomotive past.

We would love to hear from anyone whose ancestors lived in Cheshire. Did they work on the railways or did they contribute to other aspects of the region's economic life? Either way, please do contact us in the Comments Box below or via our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Sources

Wikipedia Thomas Wainwright https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wainwright
Orbitas http://www.orbitas.co.uk/home.aspx

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