In February
2006 i started my investigation to locate Albert's grave. The
obvious location wasn't easy despite the fact that he originally
lived in Birmingham, played for Villa and ended his career in
Derby. The Woolley family relocated to Manchester of all places
at some point. It's a timeline i'm trying to piece together but
it maybe that i will never know. What I do know, is that he was
in Manchester when he died as his death certificate indicates
this. The place of death is written as 159 Moss Lane East, Moss
Side. The death certificate also stated where the death was registered
and after scanning the web for Chorlton, i managed to get a email
address to locate a grave.
On the 1st March 2006 i received an email to state that Albert was buried in
grave K 2031 Consecrated Part in the Southern Cemetery of Manchester. His mother,
Elizabeth Woolley, was also buried there on the 30th December 1901 aged 66 years.
The email also mentioned that his mother lived at 18 Prestage Street in Stretford.
After a couple of mails, i received a map of the cemetery to hopefully make finding
the grave a lot easier. |
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With
this information i found an excuse to go to Manchester but i
chose one of the most miserable and rainy days of 2006. The cemetery
was easy to find, but being a typical IT Technician, i just glanced
at the map i was given and set off thinking i knew where it was.
I walked and viewed hundreds of graves until realising that he
wasn't buried there and i was actually looking in the wrong section
of the cemetery. I spoke to the people who worked in the Cemetery
information office and they pointed me in the right direction.
The plot was massive, hundreds of graves again and i was tipped
off that the graves ordering numbers were a bit "all over
the place". Great!
I slowly walked up each section, getting more and more soaked and i had even
reached the stage of not apologising for each grave i had accidentally stepped
on. Finally i found it and it stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest. Something
about the actual colour of the stone which i'm sure is captured in the photos
provided. Relief was the word to describe my emotion and if i remember right
i did semi-cheer with a punch in the air. Very amusing for anyone who saw me
that day. |
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