Flaybrick Memorial Gardens
Flaybrick Memorial Gardens is a memorial garden, formerly a municipal cemetery called Flaybrick Hill Cemetery, situated in Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. The cemetery has been designated a conservation area by Wirral Borough Council, which owns the site. History. Originally planned in the 1840s, Joseph Paxton was approached to design a large municipal cemetery for the expanding township of Birkenhead, but due to a recession and a subsequent decrease in the population, the plan went no further. By the 1860s, a boom made the provision of a new cemetery a priority. A competition was held for  the design which was won by Edward Kemp, a pupil of Paxton's and Curator of Birkenhead Park. Kemp was assisted by Edward Mills, a prominent Birkenhead surveyor from Hamilton Square, and Messrs Lucy and Littler, architects of Liverpool. The general contractor was William Rimmer of Bidston Hall, with John Middlehurst of St. Helens the contractor for buildings. The site chosen was Flaybrick Hill, a prominent location overlooked by Bidston Hill. Originally were purchased, but by the 1890s the site was extended to . The cemetery was officially opened 30 May 1864 and named Birkenhead Cemetery, and the site originally had  three separate denominational chapels. The Roman Catholic chapel was demolished in 1971 and a memorial wall has been erected on its site. The remaining two chapels, for Nonconformists and the Church of England, were last used in 1975. Most of the buildings are now in a considerable state of dereliction. The Registrar's office and Sexton's Lodge are now privately owned. The cemetery contains the war graves of 222 Commonwealth service personnel of both World Wars, as well as one of a Russian Navy officer of World War I. Other interments include James Taylor Cochran, who built the "Resurgam