General Chat

Hi May. think our "local " village cemetery is basically CoE (like the parish church). The stones I refer to are more or less illegible now. There again, they are sandstone which does erode easily. Our big town cemetary is divided into different sections according to different faiths. Will have to have another look next time I go home. In the meantime, thank you for replying...

Igor no Dudley is the centre of the universe! ~ the graveyard is in the dead centre lol

No idea about that Jan, in our local cemeteries, they do have protestant, catholic, Jewish and non- conformist cemeteries within the main cemetery walls. Maybe the stones you describe are for people of a certain religion.

Our local church was built in Victorian times but some of the graves in the churchyard appear to pre-date that. As far as I know there was no other church there before. Well, NOW you've got me guessing! Am going to have to suss this out!
Another question: a few of the graves therein have three vertical stones with a large slab horizontally across the top. Anyone know why this is?

When you think about it, the established church used to be prominent in the 1800's, owning lots of land and burial grounds were next to the churches so it could have been a case of keep out unless you have our permission i.e. be a christian and/or member of this church, otherwise, bury you dead outside our boundary line/walls.

just to go off the thread for a mo Mel is Dudley thr exact centre of england

just picked this one up you ain't offended me .
could be to do with church boundries.so the graves dont encroach public land.
just a thought.
igor

Thanx I never knew but thats gunna help a lot

A private burial is for immediate family only.


A grave where one is buried with strangers is a communial grave previously known as a paupers grave.

My great grandmother in one of them graves in Gornal ~ her hubby is buried in a family plot with her parents in luxury a mile n arf away in Dudley

Really Mel? thanks for that.

We visited a lovely graveyard {small area} in Mancetter that had railings n one in Heysham which stood on cliffs the waves lappin it ~ spose thats wat they call a watery grave!

Taff which one is wher you av no money so they put you in with strangers?

When my dad died in 91 we decided to put his ashes in his dads my grandads grave, just lift the turf a bit put the ashes in & put the turf down again, went to see the vicar to get permission which was promptly refused on the grounds of you have to have PLANING PERMISSION, asked the council, they said no, so waited a couple of months & went to the grave one sunday afternoon & just DID IT.

Whats a "private Burial" then? any ideas Please?

Don't really know the reason, but I should imagine it is because the ground has been consecrated or blessed for burials, so that souls can rest in peace.....

.......or maybe it is because that land belongs to the church and it wants people to know its boundaries.....

.....or maybe to keep people in order, that they would not be buried in consecrated ground if they commited a bad sin.....

Now I have heard of people being buried in their back gardens, or you can be scattered anywhere.........and there was a programme about a Jewish cemetary in London where they were going to build offices on the top.......that seemed very sad to me.....

sally

The only 2 cemetries near me have no walls, just iron railings around them. Many years ago, they built a railway along the edge of one, thinking they were beyond the area of the graves, but unearthed some very old ones that had to be moved elswhere.

Would have to be something really serious for me to take offence Jan, I try to always see the funny side of things and it's the divi thing that makes me laugh.

Think your idea about boundaries is probably correct,, consecrated land etc.,

May

Oooh, er, May! That is a bit of a family plot, eh? (Didn't mean it to be funny, so hope u don't take offence!)
Going back to the original question: could it have been something to do with the boundaries of consecrated ground?

I often think about my poor father in law, his cousin's wife arranged his funeral (helping his wife in her time of need) and she had his mother in law's grave opened up, so poor beggar's in with his mother in law and her first husband, what a natter the two blokes would have and all this to get her Co-op divi.