Rest in Peace

The Greengate area of Salford - the place where Salford began over a thousand years ago - is changing rapidly.

In this pic I've turned my phone away from the big buildings currently under construction. 

The Spectrum apartments form the back drop. To the right is the side of one of the few remaining victorian structures - Blueprint studios. Worth looking at their excellent website - who hasn't recorded here, from Smokey Robinson to Lady Gaga.

And in the foreground is a car park. Except it is more than that. This is the burial ground of the Baptist Christian Church, over 20,000 souls are buried here. It's founder was the Reverend Cowherd. Vegetarianism was one of their watchwords. Cowherd was succeeded by Joseph Brotherton, radical nonconformist who became Salford's first MP following the Great Reform Act of 1832. His wife Mary wrote the world's first vegetarian cookbook. 

I sometimes think we are going to regret the disappearance of the nonconformist chapels and churches, much less regarded than the C of E churches. Less ancient, but it's the nonconformists who really changed Britain (and created the US of A).