{{Short description|Cemetery in Lancashire, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox cemetery | name = Layton cemetery | image = Layton Cemetery, Blackpool.jpg | imagesize = | alt = | caption = The entrance to Layton Cemetery, with the mortuary chapel | country = England | location = Blackpool, Lancashire | coordinates = {{coord|53.8295|-3.0343|region:GB|display=inline,title}} | type = Public | style = | owner = Blackpool Council | size = {{convert|30|acre}} | graves = | interments = | cremations = | leases = | website = | findagraveid = 2159713 | embedded = | established = 1873 }} '''Layton cemetery''' is a graveyard located at Talbot Road in Blackpool, Lancashire in England. It was opened in 1873 when Blackpool parish church was replete with burying. The site encompasses {{convert|30|acre|m2}}, having been regularly expanded during its history. It is administered by Blackpool Council. A number of memorials in the cemetery are executed in Portland stone.
The cemetery was designed and laid out by Garlick, Park and Sykes, architects of Preston. Originally there were three mortuary chapels, Anglican, Catholic and Non-Conformist, but only the Anglican remains. The lodge at the entrance is now used as the cemetery office, situated to the right of the main gates on Talbot Road, it is currently occupied by the friends group, although originally it is where John Wray, the Superintendent & registrar, resided with his wife and their brood of children. Records show that by 1891 eleven people dwelled within the bijou cottage! He recorded burials, exhumations and unusual incidents in copper-plate handwriting from within his office which was also situated inside the lodge. The original part of the cemetery was surrounded a stone wall, topped with iron railings with a double iron gate at the entrance. These structures are extant. A World War I memorial is centrally situated.
In the 1930s, the cemetery was rapidly nearing capacity and therefore a new cemetery and crematorium were opened, known as Carleton Crematorium and Cemetery. Layton Cemetery is now replete but interments are permitted in existing graves.<ref>Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Society. ''Blackpool Cemetery, Layton''</ref>
==Notable interments== * Dick Barlow, England test cricketer * John Bickerstaffe, philanthropist and mayor of Blackpool * Gerald Irving Richardson, Superintendent of Lancashire Constabulary. Posthumously awarded the George Cross. * George Washington Williams, Afro-American historian * Samuel Laycock, dialect poet * Edwin Hughes, last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade * Alfred Tysoe, British athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1900 Olympic Games * Spencer Timothy Hall, writer and mesmerist * Ada Boswell, Queen of the Gypsies * Joe Longthorne, entertainer
==War graves== Layton Cemetery contains the graves of 139 Commonwealth service personnel of World War I and 39 of World War II, besides, from the latter war, 26 airmen of the Polish Air Force (whose headquarters in exile were in Talbot Square in the town), and one airman of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force.<ref name="cwgc">[https://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/40503/blackpool-%28layton%29-cemetery/] CWGC Cemetery Report.</ref>
==Gallery== <gallery> Image:SamuelLaycock.jpg|Samuel Laycock's grave Image:GeraldRichardson.jpg|Gerald Richardson's grave Image:Richard Gorton Barlow grave.jpg|Dick Barlow's grave Image:GWWilliams.jpg|George Washington Williams' grave Image:Hughesgrave.jpg|Edwin Hughes' grave Image:Tysoegrave.jpg|Alfred Tysoe's grave Image:STHall'sgrave.jpg|Spencer Timothy Hall's grave Image:AdaBoswellgrave.jpg|Ada Boswell's grave </gallery>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons category|Layton Cemetery}} * [http://www.layton-friends.org/ Friends of Layton Cemetery] * {{Find a Grave cemetery}}
{{Cemeteries in England}} {{Blackpool geography}}
Category:Cemeteries in Lancashire Category:Geography of Blackpool Category:Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in England