For the past year, the volunteer team have been working hard to understand what it means to care for an historic churchyard.

Firstly we have started to map the yards, using the parish records to digitise who is where. This is important because it speeds up archive enquiries enormously. This is a frequently used service offered by the church to locate family records. To date we have recorded 4716 plots and 15680 burials, the New yard and Gelfield lane index is complete and we are a 1/4 way through the lower yard.

Once this is complete, we will have to work on checking the location of the plots, which means surveying the area. Some biographical research is also being added and various stories will be added to the website.

It is planned for some notice boards to be installed in the New Yard and Gelfield, which will become our secondary method of communicating what we are doing.

One of the most important and interesting features in a cemetery or graveyard are the monuments. Often spanning many generations, they reflect beliefs and ideas about commemoration, styles, and tastes over time. They range from the simplest small gravestone to small buildings… HISTORIC ENGLAND 2021

We are very much aware that we have a variety of monuments, that over time have deteriorated and have become damaged. Ultimately, there is a requirement for us to do a condition survey and risk assessments. This is problematic because access has been limited but we have raised some funds to instruct a local company to help us with the clearance and we have produced an Access statement for visitors. Please use the search feature to find it. If you are a recent visitor you will notice access has much improved for the New yard and Gelfield. We are hoping to secure regular maintenance but this is limited to the funds that we raise.

It is intended that various policies and strategies will be also be posted, feel free to comment or like. Subscribe to stay updated, and if you would like to make a donation to help us finance our project then please make a donation, alternatively if you have a few hours to spare and are interested in helping then please get in touch.

In the future it will be possible to run events and develop our existing work parties, involve other, such as community groups, schools, and other motivated individuals. As we continue to make progress and create new opportunities it is important that we update our knowledge base with our discoveries and relevance in the wider community.

Setting up groups for ecology and history to advance what we know and do not know about the churchyards. Increasing wider community engagement is important to us as we apply for different sources of sustainable investment. The following is an outline of the benefit of volunteer activity.

Volunteers can help our project achieve our funding outcomes, that a wider range of people will be involved in heritage, People can develop skills and it is proven that they (you) can achieve a greater wellbeing.