Adlington Cemetery: gravestones & memorials

There has been a further update from Chorley Council regarding their safety inspections at Adlington Cemetery. Please see below for recently shared information:

We wanted to update you regarding the work taking place at Adlington Cemetery. As you may have seen, we have recently undertaken routine safety inspections to make sure our cemeteries remain safe for all visitors. Some gravestones have been identified as being unsafe and may be at risk of falling over. We have attempted to contact all affected gravestone owners and will try to make contact again, in order to discuss all options available to reinstate the memorials in a safe way.

For those we are unable to make contact with, or where we have not had a response, work will begin to carefully lay these memorial headstones flat. This will be done with the utmost respect. This work was due to start at Adlington Cemetery on 13 October 2025, however we have listened to your concerns and with the exception of two critical headstones which are over 2.5 metres in height, we have moved this date back to 27 October to allow more time for people to get in touch.

After this time, gravestones can still be reinstated in the future, and we would ask anyone who would like to discuss this to contact us. We will be updating our signage to ensure people visiting the cemetery in the future are aware. In order to identify which memorial headstones may be unsafe, a first round of checks was carried out by our officers who have undergone relevant training. This involved both visual and physical inspections. A further inspection is taking place by qualified stonemasons to confirm the identified headstones before laying them down flat.

If a headstone has been identified as unsafe and family members wish to have it reinstated, they will need to instruct a qualified stonemason. We recognise this is a difficult situation for families and so we can support families to minimise costs, waiving any of the council’s usual fees and contributing to the costs of any works, please contact us to discuss further.

We want to be on hand to answer any of your questions and along with contacting us on 01257 515494, you can speak to us in person at Adlington Cemetery on:

• Wednesday, 8 October – 9am to 11:30am

• Thursday, 9 October – 1pm to 3:30pm

• Saturday, 11 October – 9am to 11:30am

• Tuesday, 14 October – 9am to 11:30am

• Wednesday, 15 October – 1pm to 3:30pm

• Saturday,18 October – 9am to 11:30am

For further information, including answers to frequently asked questions, please visit: https://chorley.gov.uk/cemetery-inspections

Thank you for your understanding and support as we continue to care for these important community spaces.