St John's Churchyard

The original 1835 churchyard comprised sections A, B, C and D. In 1896-7, the former parsonage was demolished and its land and gardens were consecrated to create Area E. In 1932 the first section of Area F was consecrated for burials. This was extended in 1938 and again in 1946. There were still some WW2 air raid shelters at the west end of section F in the early 1950s; these were cleared to permit full use of Area F. It was decided in 2001 that no new graves would be dug anywhere in the churchyard because of the state of the remaining small area of available land. However, burials can still take place in existing family graves if there is sufficient space available. Burial of cremated remains ("ashes") can be arranged in the Columbarium, which has recently been extended to provide space for the foreseeable future. It is also usually possible to inter cremated remains in an existing family grave.

The Columbarium occupies most of Area C.

In 2001, a number of memorials from Areas A and B were re-located to the north side of Area F in order to allow for the future construction of a car parking area. The graves themselves were not disturbed.

The detailed plans of the churchyard show a numbering system for the burial plots. This numbering system was created in the 20th century as a means of locating memorials and burial plots and DOES NOT relate to the order in which graves were dug.

Church Street runs North-South to the East of the church-yard entrance (right hand side of the plan).

If you know the burial plot number, select the appropriate detail plan from the panel below. If you do not know the plot number, please use the Name Search facility, which includes details from all the burial registers and all the legible memorials (including some that are no longer legible!)

Please note that until recent times, the burial registers usually did NOT indicate the precise location of an individual burial, only that the burial took place in the churchyard. If there is no memorial, it may not be possible to locate the burial plot.

Although the location plans have been drawn as regular grid patterns, boundaries of the churchyard are not rectangular and the presence of trees, paths and underground obstructions mean that burial plots are not necessarily aligned exactly as shown.

Houses on Vine Street back onto the northern boundary of Section A. The old church school used to be here. There was a path from the church to the school yard along the western side of Section A.

The Bier House and toolshed no longer exist. The area of banked earth to the north of this section was presumably formed from soil removed during the digging of graves.

The boundary wall at the western edge of Section B has been removed but the former boundary is marked by vegetation.

The grid numbering allocated some numbers to areas which were preserved as pathways, even though no graves may have been dug in these locations.

Part of Section D is shown in pink at the south west edge to aid with alignment of sections.

The end of Section D is shown in pink at the left edge of the Section C plan to aid alignment.

There is a wall between the old churchyard and Section E. Section D extends as far east as the gap in this wall where the path leads to Section E.

There is a row of small memorial stones alongside the wall where some cremated remains have been interred (shown yellow on the plan - for details see Columbarium Row K).

The Southern extension first opened in 1897, originally the site of the old vicarage and its garden. There are a number of changes of level in this part of the burial ground, especially where the former building stood.

TAKE CARE when visiting graves in this area!

In the 1930's (before the opening of the Section F extension) graves were dug in the less accessible south-west part of the Section. Again in the 1950's (before the last part of Section F was available) graves had to be dug in the extreme south of the section.

The layout of plots is particularly irregular in this section of the churchyard in view of its shape, contours and previous use. The grid plan provides an approximate guide, but it is advisable to check a plot location with reference to inscriptions on nearby memorials.

This Section contains a large number of burial plots and is shown in two parts. The first row of plot numbers is on the eastern edge (along Church Street). The two section plans have an overlap of one row to permit alignment.

The Western extension was opened in phases from 1932 onwards as additional areas of land became available.

The grid numbering allocated some numbers to areas which were preserved as pathways, even though no graves may have been dug in these locations. In addition, three burial plots were interpolated after the numbering system was established - these are marked with outlines on the plan. In the database they have been allocated numbers ending in .5 (eg 1714.5 is next to 1715 - although this detail is not shown on the plan).

Note that the numbering system changes direction in the final (extreme west) row.

As there are a relatively high number of memorials in this newer part of the burial ground, the listing of memorial inscriptions has been divided into three parts (but these lists all relate to a single plan as shown).

Note that in the 1950's, before the 1942 extension was fully available, some new graves were dug in Section E.