Joseph Brotherton grave(22nd May 1783 to 7th January 1857)

In hundreds of years I'm sure humanity will look back at the way we ate animals and wonder how callous we were. Having animals reared to be slaughtered and eaten will be on a par with badger-baiting. Here I am at the grave of an MP who helped found The Vegetarian Society. He was a big bod in Salford and the first person buried in its sprawling Weaste cemetery.

It’s an impressive towering grave worthy of a good man and politician who is considered to be the founding father of the Borough of Salford, its first MP. His dad owned a cotton mill and aged 21 Joseph became a partner. Soon - after his dad died - he became the boss and went into partnership with his brother and a cousin. However when he was 36 his brother died and so did Joseph’s business life. He retired from the business to focus on being a church minister and politician.

For 40 years he campaigned for better working conditions in factories and cotton mills, kinder treatment of children - also for municipal gardens, museums, libraries and art galleries. The church's philosophy was not to eat meat and Joseph and his wife Martha became strict vegetarians. Aged 64 he helped establish The Vegetarian Society (his wife Martha was the author of the first vegetarian cookbook.)

This progressive chap was well-respected, liked and even adored across Salford. He was re-elected to power five times (unopposed on two occasions.) He was largely responsible for the opening of Peel Park and a bronze statue of him was erected there in thanks. Sadly he died suddenly from a heart attack aged 73 while travelling to a meeting in Manchester. Following a two mile funeral procession comprising 120 carriages he was buried where I’m stood in a cemetery he campaigned to open. Today there's another statue of him looking across the River Irwell at his beloved Salford.

As I was about to take a few photos a woman arrived in the cemetery, sat at the foot of Joseph's grave and lit a cigarette. Of all the 330,000 graves in this sprawling 39 acre cemetery....and she had to sit on the Brotherton grave. This stopped me taking some footage of the grave. I went for a stroll around the place and had a coffee in the car, waiting for her to leave. She lit another cigarette or two and I got fed up waiting. Oh well. Perhaps she was a vegetarian and felt some kinship with the dead dude. I took a few photos, did some salutes and left.