At the Annual Parochial Church Meeting on 16th May 2021, the PCC announced its decision to apply to the Ministry of Justice to close St Mary's churchyard for burials.  Please be assured that the churchyard will remain open and accessible to all as it is now, but we no longer have the space for further burials.

The PCC has very carefully considered options to re-use the older part of the churchyard, but there are too many technical as well as archaeological issues to make this feasible.

Under the application for closure, burials and will still be allowed in existing family graves where there is sufficient space and we will also apply for the interment of cremated remains within existing family graves.

In advance of the Application for Closure, the PCC agreed to develop a Memorial Path to the West of the Church which would enable cremated remains to be interred on either side for some years to come.  These works are now complete (December 2022) and we are awaiting the Faculty to use the designated space on either side of the path for internment of cremated remains.  The Application for Closure will then be submitted to the Ministry of Justice.

Please contact Jenny Bushrod at [email protected] if you have any concerns or further queries about the closure.