A long-lost gravesite containing the remains of 15 orphans has been discovered in a sunken cemetery in Bradford, more than a century after it was forgotten. The children, aged between three and 18, lived at a former Barnardo’s children’s home in Manningham between 1898 and 1911.
The orphanage, then known as Dr Barnardo’s Home for Little Incurables, provided care for youngsters with terminal or life-altering illnesses. However, the care home’s burial plot in Undercliffe Cemetery became lost after the orphans were relocated to another site. Volunteers spent five years searching through 12,500 burial records to locate a headstone marked ‘Dr Barnardo’, referring to the charity’s founder.
Many of the children who called the facility home were orphans or came from low-income families. Some suffered from rickets, a disease that causes bones to soften and deform, or tuberculosis, which is now preventable and curable.
Volunteers’ Dedication
Irene Lofthouse, a volunteer and trustee at Undercliffe Cemetery Charity, expressed her excitement about the discovery. ‘It was a revelation to find out that Bradford had been a location for “Dr Barnardo’s Home for Little Incurables” and we and our research volunteers were excited by the discovery,’ she said.
‘As the database record gives the grave number, groundwork volunteers were then able to locate it and assess what needed to be done to restore it, enabling the Cemetery to commemorate both Barnardo’s work and the children buried there,’ Lofthouse added. ‘Each time we uncover a record and a grave, it adds and acknowledges not only to Bradford’s history, but also national achievements – of which Barnardo’s is a part.’
Restoration Efforts
Lofthouse and other volunteers are now working to restore the graves, which had sunk several feet below the ground. Nadine Good, north regional director for Barnardo’s, praised the volunteers for ‘honouring the memories of these children’.
The Children and Their Dates of Death
- Arthur Westwood, age six – June 16, 1899
- James Alfred Elton, age 15 – February 15, 1900
- Samuel Martin Minns, age 15 – August 23, 1900
- Joseph Frederick Sunley, age 16 – August 27, 1900
- Arthur Ayling, age 11 – January 22, 1901
- Robert James Denny, age 14 – March 1, 1901
- George Francis Brown, age three – August 26, 1902
- Horace Russell Everett, age 16 – October 17, 1902
- Thomas Michael Varley, age 17 – July 24, 1903
- Walter Aleck Percy Goddard, age nine – July 27, 1903
- Esther (Kate) Mason, age 14 – September 18, 1903
- George Hague, age 12 – December 18, 1903
- Richard Saunders, age 13 – April 28, 1904
- Florence Edith Jane Pegler, age 18 – December 31, 1904
- Benjamin Lestrille, age 11 – September 3, 1906
The discovery has shed light on a forgotten chapter of Bradford’s history and highlighted the important work of Barnardo’s in caring for vulnerable children.
