Toxteth Park Cemetery

The cemetery's records are held on microfilm in the Liverpool Record Office, and provide the Burial Registers and the Order Books.

The cemetery is itself Grade II listed{{NHLE |num= 1001611|desc=Toxteth Park Cemetery|access-date= 28 August 2018|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}} and incorporates a derelict chapel, a derelict mason's yard and a pair of lodges or gatehouses at the Smithdown Road entrance. A significant number of obelisk and Celtic cross gravestones are also listed. The cemetery also contains Toxteth War Memorial.

To the rear, the cemetery bounds the back gardens of houses on Arundel Avenue, and can be accessed through turnstiles in an ornate gateway set back from that road at the end of a short lane. On the easterly lodge at the main entrance at Smithdown Road there is a sign with provision for the insertion of digits indicating the time of evening at which these rear entrance turnstiles will be closed, but for some time this sign has been disused, as this lodge also appears to be (the westerly lodge being inhabited and, as of spring 2009, up for auction.)

Grade II listed memorials include those of Sir John Bent,{{NHLE |num= 1078258|desc=Sir John Bent MP Memorial at Toxteth Park Cemetery|access-date= 28 August 2018|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}} Eleanora and Willam Gillespie,{{NHLE |num= 1078265|desc= Eleanora and William Gillespie Obelisk at Toxteth Park Cemetery|access-date= 28 August 2018|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}} Hetherington family,{{NHLE |num= 1078255|desc= Hetherington Memorial 5 Metres south of East Lodge at Toxteth Park Cemetery|access-date= 28 August 2018|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}} Dr James Sheridan Muspratt,{{NHLE |num= 1078260|desc= Dr James Sheridan Muspratt Memorial approximately 185 metres south of main entrance at Toxteth Park Cemetery|access-date= 28 August 2018|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}} Thomas Pennington,{{NHLE |num= 1078259|desc= Thomas Pennington Memorial approximately 145m south of main entrance at Toxteth Park Cemetery|access-date= 28 August 2018|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}} Robert Rodgers,{{NHLE |num= 1078264|desc= Robert Rodgers Obelisk at Toxteth Park Cemetery|access-date= 28 August 2018|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}} Agnes and John Rowe {{NHLE |num= 1078263|desc= Agnes and John Roew Obelisk at Toxteth Park Cemetery|access-date= 28 August 2018|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}} and Patience Simpson {{NHLE |num= 1078258|desc=Patience Simpson Memorial approximately 160m south of main entrance at Toxteth Park Cemetery|access-date= 28 August 2018|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}}

In 2009 a ceremony organised by Sons of Confederate Veterans, allegedly a Neo-Confederate organisation, rededicating the grave of Irvine Bulloch{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/08/17/liverpool-deals-with-neo-confederate-links-abdelaziz-pkg-vpx.cnn|title=Liverpool deals with strong US-based Neo-Confederate links – CNN Video|date=17 August 2020 |via=edition.cnn.com}}

File:Anglican chapel, Toxteth Park Cemetery 1.jpg| Former Anglican chapel

File:Monumental mason's yard, Toxteth park cemetery 2.jpg|Former monumental mason's yard

File:Sir John Bent memorial, Toxteth Park Cemetery 1.jpg|Sir John Bent, Mayor of Liverpool Borough

File:Gillespie memorial, Toxteth Park Cemetery 1.jpg| Eleanora and Willam Gillespie

File:Hetherington memorial, Toxteth Park Cemetery 1.jpg| Hetherington family

File:Muspratt memorial, Toxteth Park Cemetery 1.jpg| Dr James Sheridan Muspratt

File:Pennington memorial, Toxteth Park Cemetery 1.jpg| Thomas Pennington

File:Robert Rodgers memorial, Toxteth Park Cemetery 1.jpg| Robert Rodgers

File:Rowe memorial, Toxteth Park Cemetery 2.jpg|Agnes and John Rowe

File:Simpson memorial, Toxteth park Cemetery 1.jpg|Patience Simpson

File:CWGC memorial, Toxteth Park Cemetery.jpg

The cemetery contains the war graves of 274 Commonwealth service personnel, 227 from World War I and 45 from World War II. The largest group are in a War Graves plot containing 69 graves, the names of those in the plot being listed on a Screen Wall curb memorial, while other graves are dispersed throughout the cemetery. Fifty of the British dead are soldiers of the King's Liverpool Regiment.[http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/40313/LIVERPOOL%20(TOXTETH%20PARK)%20CEMETERY] CWGC Cemetery Report. Retrieved 4 December 2012.

Image:John Hulley's grave as found in February 2008.jpg

Image:John Hulley grave.jpg

Buried in the cemetery (Grave G493) is John Hulley, founder of the Liverpool Gymnasium and the National Olympian Association, who died in 1873. Revival of interest in his role in Olympic history was initiated by an article (2001) in the Journal of Olympic History entitled "The Mystery of John Hulley".{{citation |url= http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv9n1/johv9n1g.pdf |title= Journal of Olympic History, Volume 9 Number 1, Winter 2001. Organic Olympism or Olympic Orgy: The Roots of Modern Olympism and the Mystery of John Hulley by Dr. Don Anthony|accessdate=12 November 2011 |publisher= International Society of Olympic Historians }} Subsequently, his grave was rediscovered in 2008; it was badly damaged in that the headstone had been removed from the main covering stones and the grave was in a very bad condition from 130 years of atmospheric pollution.{{citation |url= http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-special-features/2008/08/08/how-we-lit-the-olympic-flame-64375-21490142/ |title= How we lit the Olympic flame |accessdate=29 November 2011 |work= Bootle Times, 28 April 2010 }}{{citation |url= http://www.bootletimes.co.uk/news/bootle-news/2010/04/22/mersey-man-john-hulley-s-olympic-legacy-honoured-in-triathlon-renaming-by-liverpool-fc-s-jamie-carragher-97007-26291662/ |title= Mersey man John Hulley's Olympic legacy honoured in triathlon renaming by Liverpool FC's Jamie Carragher |accessdate=29 November 2011 |work= Liverpool Daily Post, 8 August 2008 }}{{citation |url= http://icseftonandwestlancs.icnetwork.co.uk/iccrosby/news/tm_headline=mersey-man-john-hulley-8217-s-olympic-legacy-honoured-in-triathlon-renaming&method=full&objectid=26291061&siteid=60252-name_page.html |title= Mersey man John Hulley's Olympic legacy honoured in triathlon renaming |accessdate=29 November 2011 |publisher= Crosby Herald, 28 April 2010 }}

A Memorial Fund was set up to raise money for the restoration of Hulley's grave and increase awareness of his part in the founding of the British Olympic movement.{{citation |url= http://www.johnhulleymemorialfund.co.uk |title= John Hulley Memorial Fund |accessdate= 12 November 2011 |url-status= dead |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20120425234927/http://www.johnhulleymemorialfund.co.uk/ |archivedate= 25 April 2012}}{{citation |url= http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-special-features/2008/08/08/fund-to-restore-hulley-s-grave-64375-21490149/ |title= Fund to restore Hulley's grave |accessdate=12 November 2011 |work= Liverpool Daily Post, 8 August 2008 }} This took several months but thanks to generous donations from the International Olympic Committee, the British Olympic Association, and members of the public, sufficient funds were raised to engage a stonemason.

Messrs Welsbys of Liverpool renovated the grave and brought it back to its original condition and a re-dedication ceremony was held in 2009.{{citation |url= http://www.playedinbritain.co.uk/news-full/20090722-forgotten-olympian.php |title= Forgotten Olympian honoured in Liverpool ceremony |accessdate=29 November 2011 |publisher= Played in Britain, 22 July 2009 }}{{citation |url= http://www.kingstonandpoly.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1029:transmission-of-the-olympic-idea&catid=7:everything-else&Itemid=30 |title= Transmission of the Olympic Idea |accessdate=29 November 2011 |publisher= Kingston Athletic Club and Polytechnic Harriers, 8 January 2010 }}

At the eastern end of the high southern boundary wall, where the cemetery ends and the grounds of a supermarket, a medical clinic, and modern houses begin, the high wall continues but the style of brickwork can be seen to change; this area now occupied by the aforementioned modern buildings was previously the Toxteth Park Workhouse, which was built in 1859 by the Toxteth Park Board of Guardians as part of the West Derby Union. In 1923 the workhouse changed its name to the Smithdown Road Institution; in 1930 the Poor Law was abolished and the Union was disbanded, so the hospital was taken over by Liverpool Corporation. In 1933, its name was changed to Smithdown Road Infirmary, and in about 1950 its name was changed again, to Sefton General Hospital. Most of it was demolished in 2001 but a part of the original workhouse hospital, Arundel House, still stands.{{Cite web |url=http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%27614%20SEF%27) |title=Liverpool Record Office – Sefton General Hospital |access-date=2009-05-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509204613/http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk/dserve.exe |archive-date=2012-05-09 |url-status=dead }}[http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=ConNarrative.182&chapterId=786 The National Trust – E. Chambré Hardman archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018104724/http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=ConNarrative.182&chapterId=786 |date=2007-10-18 }}

• Toxteth, the Liverpool neighbourhood
• Burial Act 1857

{{Reflist}}

• [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~toxtethparkcemetery/ Dedicated WWW page]
• [http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&X=337500&Y=389000&width=700&height=400&gride=337567&gridn=389180&srec=0&coordsys=gb&db=pc&pc=&zm=0&scale=10000&multimap.x=388&multimap.y=218 MultiMap]
• [http://www.liverpool-ancestors.co.uk/war/cemeteryrecs.htm Cemetery Records]
• [http://www.liverpoolhome.com/Merseyside_Cemeteries/Toxteth_Park_Cemetery.htm Pictures]
• [http://www.liverpoolmonuments.co.uk/toxpk03.html War Memorial Pictures]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=no }}

{{commons category|Toxteth Park Cemetery}}

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{{Cemeteries in England}}

Category:Grade II listed buildings in Liverpool

Category:Cemeteries in Liverpool

Category:Anglican cemeteries in the United Kingdom

Category:1856 establishments in England

Category:Grade II listed parks and gardens in Merseyside

Category:Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in England