Churchyard

The churchyard is an important asset in the village. In fact, there are two churchyards in the village – one round the church and one on the opposite side of the road, further down the hill. Within each of these churchyards are areas set aside for the burial of cremated remains. There are regulations in place regarding what kinds of memorials can be introduced to graves. They can be read here.

Registers are kept of all burials, and a map of the yard is maintained so that graves can be easily located. We are currently working on a project to ensure that all of the records are readily available to the public and as helpful as possible for those who are researching family history. When this project is complete, we will update this page with all of the information.

At the moment, we are pleased to say that information about graves in the lower churchyard was collated by volunteers in 2006 and placed on the village website, here. (And it has been updated since then.)

We also have a searchable database of the extension to the Old Churchyard, here.

Maintaining the Churchyards

The churchyard around the church building is closed for burials and is maintained by the District Council. The costs of this are factored into the Council Tax precept.

The open churchyard on the opposite side of the road is maintained by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) and the costs of this are borne by the PCC. Because this is a provision for the whole parish (not just churchgoers), the Parish Council has agreed to give a grant towards the maintenance cost, but the PCC’s expenditure on the regular grass-cutting and hedge-trimming is significantly higher than this. We have established a restricted fund to receive donations towards this expense (money given to this fund cannot be spent on anything else). If you like to see the churchyard well-maintained and would like to make a regular or one-off donation to the fund, please visit this page or contact our treasurer, here. All donations are gratefully received.