Long-awaited gates installed at Preston Cemetery

It’s not every day a graveyard gets a new lease of life - but that’s exactly what’s been happening at Preston Cemetery this week.

The gates at Preston Cemetery have been in a state of disrepair for the past four years, after a BMW 1 Series overturned and crashed into the entrance in February 2021.

Three men were taken to Preston Hospital with serious injuries.

Meanwhile a fourth man, 18-year-old passenger Haroon Ahmed, died at the scene.

Since the crash, Preston City Council have said repair work would be “imminent” - however, it has since remained in limbo.

In 2024, the council said they had been waiting on an insurance outcome for the gates before the work could proceed.

Last November, they confirmed that they had secured a contractor to produce the new gates and stonework before being installed.

Now 170 years old, Preston Cemetery has as much a history of its own as the people buried within it.

In the middle of the 19th century, local residents in Preston had complained about the “noxious smell” which was caused by the vast amount of small graveyards throughout the town.

The situation was so bad that the then-Home Secretary, Lord Palmerston, ordered all graveyards within Preston to close down, to be replaced with the brand-new Preston Cemetery.

Within 30 years, it became the final resting place of more than 70,000 people.

Work on the gates is still continuing, and is expected to wrap up in the coming days.