Southern Cemetery Gets Green Flag Status

Southern Cemetery has been awarded the prestigious Green Flag Award after three years of improvements and hard work.

Manchester City Council have worked closely with the Friends of Southern Cemetery and partners, such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to improve facilities and raise standards to be awarded the Green Flag – the UK’s benchmark standard for green spaces.

The flag was raised on Monday 5 September to celebrate Southern Cemeteries’ first ever Green Flag Award since the scheme was launched in 1996.

The work focused on creating and maintaining a clean and attractive cemetery that visitors and residents could enjoy, while giving residents the opportunity to have their say in the management of the space.

This included clean up operations by members of the Friends Group and the local community, as well as a scheme to resurrect 4,000 headstones that were laid down due to safety concerns – providing work placement opportunities for local residents and resulted in permanent jobs for two apprentices.

The Southern Cemetery is one of the largest municipal cemeteries in Europe with more than 117,000 graves spanning 135 acres – including the graves of L S Lowry and Victorian philanthropist John Rylands, amongst others – and includes a number of historic buildings – five of which are Grade II listed.

The cemetery is also full of a surprising array of wildlife and bio-diversity that has been managed and protected as part of the improvement works. So much so that local schools are planning to visit the cemetery to take advantage of the rich history and wealth of nature present in one of Manchester ‘s most valuable open spaces.

Each year more than 1,000 burials take place with ceremonies representing the diverse cultural make up of Manchester and the cemetery has taken care to provide facilities to accommodate all cultural needs.

Councillor Mike Amesbury, Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, said: “This Green Flag award has been much deserved after the hard work and improvements that the cemetery has enjoyed over the past few years. Apart from the tremendous clean up effort, the project has also found two apprentices full time work – which is just brilliant.

“Manchester has more Green Flag open spaces than any other council area in the country, a source of real pride for everyone – from volunteers to council workers – who works to keep them great.”

Matt Gallagher, Chair of the Friends of Southern Cemetery Group, said: “On behalf of the Friends Group I would like to say how appreciative we are for the hard work of the cemetery staff and residents whose effort has been vital in receiving the Green Flag award. We have enjoyed a superb relationship with the City Council staff throughout and hope this continues in the future.”

Paul Ankers
Editor, Chorlton Civic Society Blog