The inventor of the friction match in around 1827, died 1 May 1859 and was buried here.
This is actually a replacement headstone from July 1972 and it says the original is in the Preston Park museum
However the heavily weathered stone next to it also mentions John Walker which seems a bit too co-incidental, although its too worn to make out any dates.
there’s no coincidence why his name appears on two stones. the walker family are interred in the grounds of st mary’s and are laid next to each other and the reason why theres two mentions of john walker is that his father a tockton grocer was also called john walker.
bit of a strange request but i am a distant relative of john walker… is it possible someone could give me more information on him as i would like to know more. thank you.
anybody heard of a tunnel that supposedly runs from this church to the albany estate area ? apparently it was an escape tunnel
When I went to school in the vicarage there were stories that they’d found a tunnel underneath when they were renovating. I was 5 years old, but I remember the stories