Blacon Cemetery

The Chester Cemetery, which is owned by Chester City Council, is about a mile-and-a-half from the centre of Chester, at the end of Malvern Road which leads into Blacon Hall Road and Saughall Road.  

The main entrance is in Blacon Avenue.

War Graves

In 1940, the authorities set aside two special plots within the cemetery for the burial of service war dead.  The larger plot is near the southern boundary, and was used as a Royal Air Force Regional Cemetery by a number of RAF stations in Cheshire and the adjoining counties.  Only airmen are buried in it.  The smaller plot is in the corner of Plot H and is close to the entrance in Malvern Road.  This was not only for United Kingdom and Commonwealth graves but also for burials from the numerous Polish hospitals and camps in Cheshire and the adjoining counties.  

There are altogether 560 service war burials in the cemetery and they are detailed in the Cemetery Register, which is kept in the Cemetery Office.  The special memorials type C, mentioned in the footnote to the classification, commemorate five airmen buried in adjoining graves, who could not be individually identified.  These memorials take the form of individual headstones, each bearing the superscription "Buried near this spot".

The larger plot which contains 398 of the 1939/45 war burials, is virtually a cemetery within a cemetery.  It is enclosed by a hornbeam hedge.  At the entrance is a shelter, rather like a lych gate, in which there are two seats and a low rectangular pillar of Portland stone.  Facing this across the plot is an oak seat on York stone paving.  To the left of the entrance, and approached by three low steps, the Cross of Sacrifice stands upon a lawn against a background of four fastigiate hornbeam trees. 

Flanking the Cross of Sacrifice are a pair of specimen Turkish hazel trees.  Along the disused railway line is a line of hornbeam trees underplanted with spring flowering bulbs.  Two more oak seats on York stone paving have been placed on this lawn, one on each side of the Cross.  The graves are in level lawn-like turf and along the rows of headstones are continuous flower borders in which bloom roses and other flowers in their seasons.

In the other plot, too, the graves are in level mown turf with continuous flower borders along the rows of headstones.  It is screened at two sides by a hornbeam hedge.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (external link) is responsible for the maintenance of these two plots.

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• Plan of Blacon Cemetery  89kb