St Peter’s Church Street – The Lost Gravestones project has between set up to highlight Liverpool’s greatest ‘discovery’ of over 1,300 gravestones of significant and historical importance.

The Church of St Peter in Church Street, Liverpool, was demolished in 1922. Various parts of the fabric went to other churches in the area. The ten bells were originally removed and stored in the crypt of St Michael’s Church, Upper Pitt Street, before being installed in St Helen’s Parish Church. Whenever they are rung, you could be instantly transported back to Church Street at the start of the 1900’s.

The removal of the dead from the churchyard commenced on the 5th December 1921, and was completed on the 5th September 1922.

The remains were placed in 6,078 wooden shells, each about the size of an ordinary adult coffin. Twentytwo lead shells were found, which were reinterred without being opened. Twentyeight brick graves were uncovered.

Nearly 100 years later, I (Jonathon Wild) would stumble upon a set of ten gravestones at the rear of Walton Parochial Cemetery by a chance visit to Rice Lane Farm/Cemetery.

Further research lead me to uncovering the following:
The Gravestones numbered 1,375, were removed to the Parochial Cemetery, Rice Lane, Walton.

And thus began a year long correspondence with the Landowner (Liverpool Parish Church) and the site Manager of Rice Lane Farm to be allowed to start to map out this land, to produce numerous health and safety documents and our ‘plan of action’ which will lead to the uncovering of these gravestones so that they can be photographed, and their inscriptions noted.

These gravestones go back to the early 1700’s and were once considered ‘lost’ in that it took historians a great detail of research to uncover exactly what had happened to them and where they were placed.

This Facebook group is a project headed by Jonathon Wild, and administrated by Claire Griffiths & Graham Seaman in which we will lead a team to slowly uncover hundreds of inscriptions from the hidden gravestones from St Peter’s Church. What will they reveal? History on the people, their family, perhaps a note or two about the Church or where they lived.

We plan to uncover these gravestones, photograph them, and add them to a public database so that anyone searching for them can see for themselves whether relatives or public. They will also be uploaded to Find A Grave and we hope to reveal some exciting finds!

many thanks to Jonathon wild for the invite
his youtube channel is here @LiverpoolTours2023

also thanks to Adam for joining me today @BambiSelect

also thanks to john for help with old pictures

you can also find the fbook group if you want to get involved which is called st peters church st the lost gravestones..

and if you would like to buy me a coffee you can do below
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/g2emediag

all money does go back into the channel and of course on hot drinks...cheers

#liverpool #exploreliverpool #merseyside