First Castleford 'cemetery trail' opens near Leeds charting 'lives and history' of town via gravestones
A heritage group in Castleford has begun giving tours around a cemetery to offer a unique glimpse into the town’s history.
Castleford Civic Society launched their Cemetery Heritage Trail on Saturday (February 15) at Healdfield Road Cemetery and hope to engage many other locals in the years to come.
The tour sees those taking part visit the graves of 17 individuals who have been chosen to give an insight into the life and times of Castleford during the 19th and early 20th centuries and the part its citizens played in local, national and international events.
Developed with hours of volunteer time and funding from Wakefield Council, the graves visited each carry a weight of significance in telling the town’s story.
The walking tour lasts around one-and-a-g-half hours and The Civic Society have produced a booklet for those attending, which is also downloadable from the Society’s website and allows the walk to be undertaken independently of a guided walk.
The Civic Society intend to hold further walks in the warmer weather and will also include the trail as part of the annual September Heritage Open Days festival.
Kathryn Stainburn, lead member from the Castleford Civic Society on this project, said: “This has been an amazing project to work on. Old cemeteries have always held a fascination for me. Pulling together a fantastic group of individuals who share this passion has been a joy and we’ve all been encouraged by the positive comments from those who attended the first walk.”
Amongst the gravestones featured is one of Mary Ann Winchurch, a Castleford mother of nine who died in October 1917 in an accident at the Royds Green munitions factory, near Rothwell, one of two satellite sites of the main plant at Barnbow.
Captain George Perfect’s gravestone is also part of the trail. Captain George was a mariner, a philanthropist and a local Wesleyan lay preacher and lived on Beancroft Road when not sailing the seas. When he launched his own boat ‘Miranda’ in May 1864 it was an occasion that was reportedly “witnessed by upwards of 1,000 Sunday school children, as well as a vast assemblage of the inhabitants of Castleford”.
On Saturday’s first tour, Castleford’s representative of the Commonwealth War Graves commission laid a wreath donated by volunteers on one of the war graves featured in the trail.
A wreath was also laid on the grave of Herbert Smith who was the General Secretary of the Miners Federation of Great Britain at the time of the 1926 General Strike. Mr Smith died in 1938 at his desk in the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) offices in Barnsley and was buried in Castleford. At the time crowds thronged Healdfield Road and a brass band played as his cortege approached the cemetery.
A display of flowers was laid on all the graves featured in the trail in remembrance and thanks for the contribution the individuals have made to the story of Castleford.
Kathryn Stainburn added: “Spending a lot of time over the last several months in the cemetery, it has been really inspiring to speak to visitors and passers-by and explain what we were doing and in turn hear of their affection for the cemetery which, as was pointed out more than once by those we spoke to, is a haven for biodiversity – foxes, woodpeckers and wild primroses to name but a few!”