The Grave of Catherine King

Catherine King’s Grave – restored at last!

 Catherine Elizabeth King(1851 – 1919) the only child of Vincent and Elizabeth King, lived all of her life in the house called Point of Ayr, Mill Hill, Oxton. Her father was a wealthy merchant, and following his death she inherited a substantial family fortune. However, she used her new wealth to become a great benefactress to Oxton, and especially to St.Saviour's church.

She laid the foundation stone of the new St Saviour’s church on March 26^th, 1889. After the ceremony of laying that stone, the records reveal that “ The Mallet of ebony and ivory… was presented to Miss Catherine King”. And then that “The trowel of silver and ivory was presented to Miss Catherine King”.

She also laid the foundation stone of Oxton’s first purpose built Parish Hall (on Storeton Road) on 4^th July 1910.

If it had not been for Catherine King (and Edmund Taylor, of course) The Arno might never have existed. That it is with us to enjoy today is simply the result of their shared belief that recreation was as important as education for children. Together, they gave the children of Oxton – and us - a wonderful park.

It was known for some years that Catherine was buried at Holy Cross, Woodchurch, together with her parents, but the graveyard had become so overgrown and uncared for it was almost impossible to find anybody. But eventually her grave was discovered and the decision was made to restore her grave  to create a fitting memorial for someone who had given so much to others during her life. But the grave that was found was in quite an awful condition.

It took quite some time to get a shared determination and agreement at Holy Cross to restore Catherine’s grave, but when the current Rector (Christine Broad – formerly of St Saviour’s) was contacted, she was all for it!

During a recent visit to assess the damage to the King family’s memorial stone, we met by chance a group of volunteers who had set about tidying up the graveyard after many years of neglect. They had already done quite an incredible job (but still more to do). As we stood there, those volunteers turned the overgrown patch of earth into a recognisable grave. It was believed that it would be quite a simple task to replace the cross, which had fallen down. Indeed it would have been, but at a meeting with Rector Christine Broad at Holy Cross, she described the long-winded procedural process for making repairs, insurance issues, health and safety considerations, etc etc, which she was forced to follow under the current Graveyard Regulations imposed by the Diocese of Chester. In the end, it was agreed that we should not attempt to replace the cross, but to lay it on top of the grave.

Turf was laid on top of the grave (gravel is now forbidden), and then we laid the cross on top (safe and secure, and meeting all of the current regulations).

The final result of our work is now, I think, a fitting memorial to a lady who gave so much to Oxton – but gave us The Arno especially.