Burton and the graves in the wood

Thatching Bishop Wilson's Cottage in Burton

30/01/2026

Burton and the graves in the wood

Burton is a pretty chocolate box village located on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire. It is a quiet, sleepy village complete with thatched cottages and set in beautiful countryside. Burton Mere Wetlands sit on the edge of the village and is a perfect spot for some walking or birdwatching. It was first recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Burtone and once had a thriving port.

It looks as though it has stepped out of an Agatha Christie mystery and there is indeed a mystery in Burton.

If you should happen to take a stroll through Burton Wood you may come across the site of two graves right beside the pathway. What are they doing here when the churchyard of St Nicholas is so near? Why are they here in the wood? What did they do to be banished?

Site of Quakers' graves in dappled sunlight — Site of Quakers’ graves in the woods

The two graves sit side by side surrounded by a low fence. They are at a right angle to the pathway and have a plaque above them.

The plaque states,

These stones have been known as

THE QUAKERS GRAVES

for nearly 300 years

In 1870 the almost obliterated inscription read

The body of ELL 1663

They have been preserved as a tribute

To the men and women who adopted

A courageous attitude in difficult times

February 1938 and 1980

Plaque above the Quakers' graves — Plaque above the Quakers’ graves

These are reputedly the graves of Quakers, a non-conformist religious group founded by George Fox in England in the 1650s. The formal name for the Quaker movement is the Society of Friends or the Religious Society of Friends. Tolerance is part of the Quaker approach and so they learn from other faiths and churches. They are also known for their pacificism and oppose war and the death penalty. However, the Quaker refusal to take oaths and to continue to hold banned religious meetings led to their persecution and also to their being fined by the establishment. A number of Quakers were also imprisoned between 1662 and 1670.

The names of those buried here seems to be lost. I could find no firm record of who they might be, but a local legend states that they are a local Quaker and his wife who wished to be buried across the footpath so that those who had stood on their hearts while they were alive could trample on their heads in death. The burial records available online gave me no leads and there did not appear to be a significant Quaker group in the area although there were Quakers in other areas of Cheshire.

So were these two Quakers who had been fined and persecuted for their beliefs during this period of religious intolerance? We may never know but Quakers were persecuted in Britain until 1689 and so if the local legend is true it is reasonable to believe so.

The graves no longer sit across the pathway but appear to have been relocated to one side. You can still visit them if you follow the pathway through the wood and think of them and to what may have led to this becoming their resting place.