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Historian Fred Hughes writes....   

I always have a laugh when I pass the grave of Arnold Bennett. And before all you Bennett aficionados reach for your quills in order to stab my eyes out, let me explain. Better still I’ll let the former chairman of the Arnold Bennett Society, author John Potter, tell you.

“I guess what you’re referring to is the error over the date of his death,” he says. “The only explanation I can give is that the handwriting of whoever provided the information to the stonemason was so bad that the last digit appeared as a 9 instead of 7. Unfortunately the information on the only memorial to one of the world’s greatest novelists will forever remain inaccurate.”

The great Potteries’ man of letters was born in Hanley on 27^th May 1867 and he died in London on 27^th March 1931. So is there a bigger story about how the stonemason carved the date of his death as the 29^th?

 “There was quite a family tussle after Bennett died,” John explains. “He and his wife Marguerite had been separated for many years but they never divorced despite him having what we would call a common law marriage with the actress Dorothy Cheston. You could say it was a family at war; Dorothy wanted to keep the ashes in London while Marguerite and the rest of the Bennetts wished to have the remains interred alongside his mother at Burslem. In any event the ashes remained at Golders Green Cemetery for four months before they were brought home. Perhaps the mistake was made because of this time lapse.”

It’s a lovely story, one that Bennett could easily have written with his proclivity for irony. Burslem Cemetery is full of such stories.

 “Cemeteries were made for the local historian,” says Steve Birks, himself the writer of one of the best history sites on the web. “Burslem Cemetery is no exception; in fact it’s among the most informative. The site in Nettlebank Smallthorne was opened in 1879 and covers about 28 acres. It was intended to be a recreation park for strolling about, and even riding and cycling. At least a third of the land was used for the lodges along the walks. In fact only about five and a half acres was specifically intended for burials. It was a pleasure park as well as a place for memorials and reflection. And the centrepiece was the chapel set in the middle.”

Burslem was an independent borough when the cemetery opened. It was described in one journal as being one of the most beautiful in the country.

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