The Bishop of Blackburn has ruled a small portion of land can be de-consecrated at an East Lancs cemetery, where there are burial areas for patients and staff at a former hospital and asylum.

The Calderstones site also includes the graves of the ‘Booth Hall Babies’ – wartime infants evacuated to Calderstones Hospital from Booth Hall Hospital in Manchester. Nearby is a well-maintained military ceremony.

A small section of land on one side of the cemetery near Whalley can be de-consecrated to ensure its future use,  subject to strict conditions, the Bishop has decided.  Most of the land will remain consecrated.

The announcement follows a consultation where the bishop, the Rt Rev Philip North, sought views.

Calderstones Cemetery was sold by the NHS two decades ago. It then changed ownership over the years and its state, especially the removal of many headstones, caused concern among relatives and the local community. The site’s overall condition, concerns for graves and memorial areas where ashes were scattered, and its uncertain future were raised at Ribble Valley Council meetings. It has also been the focus of a campaign to keep its religious status and restore it.

Tthe Diocese of Blackburn said an application was first made in 2019 to de-consecrate a portion of the land after Ribble Valley Council granted planning permission for a crematorium there.

Then-bishop, the Rt Rev Julian Henderson, ruled further investigations should be carried out to check whether human remains lay within that part of the land. Investigations were undertaken, with inspections of cemetery records and an independent survey using ground penetrating radar. It concluded there are no remains for the land in question.

The statement added: “On this basis, the present Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Philip North, has agreed this specific area of the cemetery can be de-consecrated. The rest of the land will remain consecrated, and the bishop has set strict conditions for its future to ensure the remembrance of people buried within it.

“These include new landscaping and other works of restoration are carried out in the burial ground. The bishop has also decreed the consecrated burial ground should be open to visitors, a communal memorial should be erected, and information boards explaining the history of the cemetery be put in place.”