Rochdale cemetery gates
The final resting place of many of the 28 original Rochdale Pioneers, founders of the worldwide co-operative movement. An excellent self-guided cemetery trail is available online at www.rochdale.gov.uk/pdf/463%20-%20Pioneers%27%20graves%20...
The booklet includes brief biographies of the pioneers who are buried here and photographs of some of them. It also lists the final resting place of those Pioneers who were not buried in this local cemetery. The graves are well indicated by a series of plaques at the side of the path. They were repaired and cleaned in 2012 by Co-operative Funeralcare. The cemetery is managed by Rochdale Borough and is one of the best kept and least threatening cemeteries that I have visited.
They are not mentioned in the trail but I also came across an interesting collection of geological specimens in this cemetery. I assume that they were originally samples from a stone mason of the types of stone which were for sale for making the memorial stones. They look like gate posts and are dotted along the main path. Each 'post' is made of the appropriate stone and labelled with its name and place of origin, so there is Old Red Sandstone from Dumbartonshire, slate from the quarries at Dinorwic, local Millstone Grit from Blackstone Edge and granite from Aberdeen, among several others, some of which are now illegible.
Rochdale cemetery gates
The final resting place of many of the 28 original Rochdale Pioneers, founders of the worldwide co-operative movement. An excellent self-guided cemetery trail is available online at www.rochdale.gov.uk/pdf/463%20-%20Pioneers%27%20graves%20...
The booklet includes brief biographies of the pioneers who are buried here and photographs of some of them. It also lists the final resting place of those Pioneers who were not buried in this local cemetery. The graves are well indicated by a series of plaques at the side of the path. They were repaired and cleaned in 2012 by Co-operative Funeralcare. The cemetery is managed by Rochdale Borough and is one of the best kept and least threatening cemeteries that I have visited.
They are not mentioned in the trail but I also came across an interesting collection of geological specimens in this cemetery. I assume that they were originally samples from a stone mason of the types of stone which were for sale for making the memorial stones. They look like gate posts and are dotted along the main path. Each 'post' is made of the appropriate stone and labelled with its name and place of origin, so there is Old Red Sandstone from Dumbartonshire, slate from the quarries at Dinorwic, local Millstone Grit from Blackstone Edge and granite from Aberdeen, among several others, some of which are now illegible.