From Lancashire to Derbyshire for burial!

[fridayschild]

After years of wondering what became of him I have found that my 3x Great Grandfather Robert Taylor (born Charlesworth, Derbyshire c.1804) died on March 13th 1875 in Burnley, Lancashire. I looked through the records of the Municipal Cemetery and also the local churchyards but could not find out where he was buried. I looked at the parish burials on Find My past and was amazed to find he had been buried in Charlesworth on 17th March.
What I can't get my head a round are the logistics of transporting a dead body all the way to Derbyshire. I presume they must have used a horse drawn hearse but as he only had 1 son and 2 daughters and they were employed as cotton weavers I would have thought the expense would have been too much.
It is the first time in all the years that I have been tracing both mine and my husbands family trees that I have come across this

[KGarrad]

Were the family living in Burnley?

Charlesworth is only a few miles from Manchester!
So it's not really "all the way to Derbyshire"

Nearby Broadbottom (now in Greater Manchester) had a railway station since 1845.
The station is a mile and a half from Charlesworth. So perhaps transported by rail?

[fridayschild]

The family had moved to Burnley from Derbyshire via Ashton Under Lyne in the mid 1860's. The railway had reached Burnley by then so they could have taken him by train, I just can't imagine them loading him into the freight carriage. 

[rosie99]

, I just can't imagine them loading him into the freight carriage. 

Why Not 
Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey had it's own railway station and was used to bury people from London from  the 1850's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookwood_Cemetery

[KGarrad]

If he wanted to be buried "at home" what better way to transport the body?

[Galium]

Roads in Victorian times were not nearly as good as they are now, and railway travel was far swifter (and less bumpy).  According to this article, many railways had purpose-built hearse vans:

http://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Hearse_Van

[Marmalady]

I have someone who died in Liverpool who was taken all the way to Rhuddlan in North Wales to be buried - a much longer journey than Burnley to Charlesworth.

As he was an ex-Marine Engineer on Packet boats that travelled up & down the North Wales coast I can only suppose he was taken by one of these boats - perhaps as a favour by old mates.

[LizzieW]

My 2 x g.grandmother died in Manchester where she had moved to live with one of her sons after her husband's death, but I was surprised to find she had been buried in Penistone, Yorkshire alongside her husband.  So her family took her from Manchester to Yorkshire for burial - and in December at that.  I guess they must have gone by train or else they'd have had to travel from Manchester to Derbyshire and then over the Snakeoops Woodhead Pass to Yorkshire not very easy at the time with a coffin in the vehicle even though it is only about 25-30 miles.

[sallyyorks]

After years of wondering what became of him I have found that my 3x Great Grandfather Robert Taylor (born Charlesworth, Derbyshire c.1804) died on March 13th 1875 in Burnley, Lancashire. I looked through the records of the Municipal Cemetery and also the local churchyards but could not find out where he was buried. I looked at the parish burials on Find My past and was amazed to find he had been buried in Charlesworth on 17th March.
What I can't get my head a round are the logistics of transporting a dead body all the way to Derbyshire. I presume they must have used a horse drawn hearse but as he only had 1 son and 2 daughters and they were employed as cotton weavers I would have thought the expense would have been too much.
It is the first time in all the years that I have been tracing both mine and my husbands family trees that I have come across this

In 1758 my grt x 6 grandad was taken from the Haworth area back to his original village of Heptonstall for burial (in the PR as now of "Haw") . This would probably have involved, like many Heptonstall burials even of the very poor, being carted up a very steep cobbled road on the side of a hill known as The Buttress. How on earth did they do it ? But they did 

They must have had to keep shoving wedges under the cart back wheels or something  to climb this

http://thehelloftheworth.blogspot.co.uk/p/4.html?m=1