I enjoy genealogy and spend half my time buried in old documents or rambling around old graveyards. Last week I had reason to visit Farnworth Cemetery, In the shadow of the Phoenix Club, and ended up stumbling (literally) upon something remarkable.

Farnworth Cemetery is a very unusual cemetery, the ground is almost dome shaped and the cemetery is difficult to navigate and as such I was having a heck of a time finding the plot I was looking for. Whilst on the hillside I fell over a grave which was face down in the mud. As I stood up in amongst the moss covering this grave I thought I could make out the word "murdered" which piqued my interest. I scraped all of the moss and other grime off this stone and was astonished to see it was a stone for 2 children murdered in1882 (picture attached).

Upon returning home I set about researching the story behind this and It is unbelievably sad. Various newspaper article from the time are available online but the short story is as follows:

A girl called Phoebe Hardy was born in 1865 to an unmarried lady called Agnes Ann Hardy. 2 years later Agnes would meet a man named William Bradburn who had spent time in Prestwich Asylum after having violent outbursts as a result of suffering from epilepsy. Reports seem to indicate he was a good chap but when epilepsy took him this led to violence. Agnes & William would marry in 1867 and in 1872 they would welcome a son Peter Bradburn. In 1880 Agnes would pass away leaving William alone to raise the 2 children. In 1882 Phoebe was now 17 and began to court a local man and William being displeased by this and jealous of his daughters attention being taken away from him took the decision to try and find and confront Phoebe's boyfriend. Upon being unsuccessful he took the dreadful decision to murder Phoebe & Peter and then to try and take his own life although he was prevented from doing so by locals who did not initially know what awful thing he had done.

Upon discovery he was of course, arrested, charged and convicted. Under cross examination he was heavily scrutinized to see if he was using epilepsy as a means of "getting off" or if he was genuinely mentally ill. He was deemed mentally ill and the jury themselves pleaded with the courts to waive the death penalty. This was ultimately successful and he would spend the rest of his days in Broadmoor Asylum.

Phoebe worked in the local cotton mill. This set me to wondering how Phoebe & Peter came to have such a nice headstone given that there Mum was dead, Father incarcerated and family were all also working class. I found the answer in an old newspaper article in that Phoebe's colleagues in the mill raised money to pay for the stone. I am from Oldham and all of my family are working class going back hundreds of years. I know many family stories about how just how hard these times were. I have no doubt it was exactly the same in Bolton and so it is incredible that this working class community came together to ensure these poor children had an appropriate memorial. People would have had to have gone without that week in order to contribute yet they still did it which makes it all the sadder that 140 years later this stone is lying in the mud.

Seeing that stone lying there in the mud really struck a chord with me so I have decided to try to raise the money - which will probably be only £500 or so - To have a stone mason come and put this stone right. As such we have created this page and hopefully can raise the money.

I have spoken with Bolton Council and we have their written consent to repair this stone so now its just about raising the money to do it. Whilst times are hard and £500 is £500, I hope we can quickly get this money and you never know maybe we can raise a bit extra too. A friend is going to suggest to me some local Bolton Children's Charities and should we exceed the target then we will donate that money to them in Phoebe Hardy & Peter Bradburn's names.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this

Simon