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All the graves were grouped together on the same side of the church and the graves themselves bore no dates or epitaphs. These were paupers’ graves.

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Following the death of a pauper in the workhouse, the relatives of the deceased were given 48 hours to claim the body. If nobody came forth, the corpse was unceremoniously taken frm the workhouse to the church and laid to rest in these unmarked graves. There was huge social stigma attached to ending your days in such a way.

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At first I thought that it must have been a popular surname around these parts but then it dawned upon me that the first names were all names of nearby local places. They weren’t graves belonging to one family, but those belonging to the poor of neighbouring towns and villages.

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Visiting Ormskirk Parish church, I couldn’t help but notice that there were many graves marked with the name ‘ POOR ’ .

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Prior to 1834 and the Poor Law Amendment Act, there was no systematic procedure to record the deaths of the poor. Many of the bodies were also used for “anatomical examination”- that is chopped up and used for experiments and so in these mass graves there will have been the dismembered lying cheek and jowl next to the beheaded!