Genealogy Chat

While I was sat having my dinner the other day I noticed what seemed to be the tops of headstones peeking up from behind a wall. I walked over to where they were and found myself in an open grassy area and indeed they were headstones - about half a dozen - and also 4 monuments in the middle of the grass. I collared a poor old man walking his dog and asked him why they were there. He told me that it was once a cemetery and that the council had bulldozed it years ago although he thought that the bodies were still there under the ground. I wondered are councils allowed to bulldoze cemeteries willy-nilly? Do they have to make a record of the headstones and inscriptions before they go ahead or will there already have been a record? Jeanette

Many Church cemeteries were treated like this, often by an arrangerment between the church authorities and their local authority. This was often because the cemetery was closed, and the church had no money or people to maintain it. The local authority may have agreed to maintain it as an open space if the monuments were removed, stacked up against the walls, or used to form paths. Usually there would be a record of interments. Some cemeteries where this happened were detached from their churches, although it has also happened in churchyards, both those maintained by local authorities and those still maintained by the churches. Sometimes cemeteries have been cleared away entirely, either for public health reasons or for redevelopment. In such cases, all the human remains have to be removed under Home Office licence and decently reinterred. It can take up to years to do this to the exacting standards required. It may be of some general interest to learn that gravestones can be curtilage structures of listed buildings, so, where a church or a cemetery chapel is listed, removal or re-siting of gravestones could require Listed Building Consent. Furthermore, if a cemetery is in a Conservation Area, removal or re-siting of gravestones older than 1922 is controlled under the conservation area legislation. It is therefore more difficult now to sweep away gravestones than it used to be, although there are inevitably places to which these rules do not apply. Stan Driver

Headstones and monuments may be moved after 100 years - it is assumed that by then all close relatives will also be dead. However, some people buy the plots of land for decades (I own my great-grandparents graves for another 40 years!), so if you have relatives buried in a cemetry they propose to bulldoze, hunt down the certificates of ownership. Bodies usually stay where they are. I know of two examples - in one graveyard, they moved all headstones to the edge and gravelled it over, put benches in and it's now a sort of park. Only the horizontal-style headstones that cover the grave could not be removed. The other case was when a nearby church built an extension. The headstones were moved, but the bodies were scooped up to make way for the foundations. You could see the bones sticking out of the earth in the skip.

Thanks for that Stan. The gentleman that I spoke to said that the church that the cemetery had belonged to was still there though we couldn't see it from where we were stood. He also mentioned that the council wanted to build a lake there but there had been objection from the residents. Hopefully there will be a record somewhere as the stones that remain (mid 1800's) were very weather worn and some unreadable. Jeanette

Max- do you know if any record was kept of the people who were interred there and then moved - or not? Many of my rellies came from that area - along with hundreds of eithers! Rosi

Rosi You beat me to it. I was just going to ask that! Jeanette

Thanks for all the info and offers of help Max Jeanette

Max - I don't know what they did with them. Maybe they reburied them in consecrated land later, but they made no attempt to keep individual skeletons separate. The bones can't have been less than 200 years old and I heard rumors that they were suicides etc, but I'm sure they should have been treated with more consideration.

gravestones from 1920-1960 in some cemeteries have been removed in Lincolnshire I find this a terrible thing to do. also a church in a village not far from where I live has been sold (cemetery) included and now a friend of my mothers (who is in her 80's) has been told she cannot visit the graves of her family. It shouldn't be allowed. Sue

I had a problem when looking for info on my mother's side of the family. She told me that several members of the family had been buried in a certain churchyard. So off I went to have a look only to find that several years earlier the churchyard had been bulldozed to make way for a new road. I asked a lady at the church what had happened to the graves and was told they had been moved to another place not far from the church and I could go and have a look there. The only problem was that they were surrounded by 6ft railings and the only gate was locked. It seems such a shame!

HI, My husband died 2years ago, when I bought the plot (double plot) I was told that I would have to renew it after 30years!! Apparently if I don't the government if they want to could do what they like. I just hope I remember as I'm hoping to live past my 60th. I know when my sister lost her son she doesn't have to renew it for 70years. I think it's terrible to be honest. What's the point in laying someone to rest and not knowing if they are going to be left alone. I know I don't want to be moved about when I die. Laurie

Laurie So sorry to read about your husband. Perhaps this is where cremation comes into its own. We could all be put in urns and sit on our rellies mantlepieces and be with our families always. Having said that though I suppose somebody could end up with quite a collection of urns! When my dad died 18 months ago he was cremated and I didn't fancy scattering his ashes (it had been very dry at the time and I thought he might blow away!)so we dug a hole down at his local village football club, something he was very involved with, and buried his ashes there with a simple stone on top just saying John Greenley 2002. But whats to say the football club will be there in years to come. Jeanette

My other half lives in Hull and we were walking through the industrial part of hull and there are quite a few old cemeteries which have been turnes into parks. I always wondered if the graves still remained even though the church was destroyed in the war.