Blackburn Cemetery #2: William Billington

William Billington's grave is obviously far more difficult to vandalise, and only his nose has been attacked here. The sculpture appears to have been taken from a photograph of the man who came to be known as 'The Blackburn Poet'.

'ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION TO THE MEMORY OF
WILLIAM BILLINGTON
(AUTHOR OF SHEEN AND SHADE [1861], LANCASHIRE
SONGS, POEMS, AND SKETCHES [1883], &c.*)
WHO WAS BORN APRIL 3RD 1827, AND
DEPARTED THIS LIFE JANUARY 3RD 1884.'

 

'DEAD AND YET LIVING – LIVING IN THAT VERSE
OUR CHILDREN SHALL REHEARSE,
CLEAVING TO WHAT IS FAIR AND GOOD AND WISE.
LET THE DROSS PASS AWAY,
LET MEANER THINGS DECAY –
THE POET NEVER DIES.'

 

 

The other side of the memorial bears a representation of Billington's Sheen and Shade.

 

Billington initially supported his family by factory work, which he hated, and eleven years after the death of his first wife (in 1857) he re-married and several years later started running a beer house because of his ill health. His (illiterate) second wife deserted him and their young child because of his intellectual interests. The beer house on the corner of Bradford Street and Nab Lane was known as 'Poet's Corner' and attracted visiting poets such as John Critchley Prince and Richard Dugdale. It was also a centre for debates.

 

Billington was a founder member of the Blackburn Mechanic's Institute, advised trade unions, and travelled around the north-west reading and selling his poetry.

 

*Billington also published the poem Pendle Hill in 1876 and Michael Ian Watson published a very brief account of the poet in about 1980: William Billington : the Blackburn poet.