Echoes of Sporting Lives

Some of Southport’s most important sporting characters are buried in Duke Street cemetery.

Forget everything you think you know and step into the real early histories of Southport & Birkdale Cricket Club, Southport Rugby Club and Southport Football Club. Learn more about the characters involved and how they helped to shape sport in Southport, their successes and failures…and maybe even a scandal or two.

This tour begins at the entrance gates of Duke Street Cemetery in Southport. View on Map

Audio Guide

Guide Notes

Welcome to Duke Street Cemetery, the final resting place of many of the prominent characters in the story of sport in Southport.

It is the oldest cemetery in Sefton, Opened in 1866. Described at the time as being “situated about half a mile from Southport at a short distance from the Ormskirk Road”. That in itself probably gives you a fair idea of the scale of development between 1860 and today.

Cemetery Design

When it opened, one half was devoted to members of the Church of England, the other portion being divided between Roman Catholics and Nonconformists, which is why there are 3 chapels.

The original portion of the cemetery itself was designed by a landscape architect (left side of the map), and next to it was a large playing field used for local sports, and over time the cemetery expanded onto the site of those playing fields.

Following this Tour

For each part of this tour a cemetery map is available showing you how to get to each stop. Each area of the cemetery has a section name or number, for example Section M or Section 9. The map provided for each stop indicates the rough location within that section of the gravesite itself.

To further assist, if you are struggling with the map, there are GPS co-ordinates which can be used on Google Maps and also What 3 Words locations. These too will take you to the rough location of the gravesite.

The full cemetery map is provided here for reference: