| The Parish Church of St James |  |
| St. James's Road, Hampton Hill, TW12 1DQ (Parish Office 020 8941 6003) | |
| THE CHURCH BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS | |
| Section Contents: Introduction
| Building Projects | Images
of St. James's | Inside the Church | Symbols
in the Church | The
Church Hall | The Church
& Grounds Through the Years | The Churchyard
| The Tower and Spire | The
Vicarage |
|
 |
|
The Churchyard
 |
The churchyard
is the land surrounding the church and used as a graveyard. It has
been consecrated by a bishop and is sometimes called 'God's acre'.
Consecrated means set apart as sacred. It covers an area of about
1.6 acres and contains about 1200 known graves which can be seen
in the Churchyard Records.
Misbehaviour in the churchyard can be punished
by law. |
| The original churchyard was small but was greatly augmented in 1882 when the Vicar of Hampton donated an acre of land adjoining Park Road to extend it. Animals are not allowed to graze in a churchyard, and no-one may fell or plant trees unless first having obtained the permission of the Parochial Church Council, the 'incumbent' (usually the vicar or rector), and the Archdeacon. In the churchyard there is a shed for garden equipment. |
 |
There is a double garage beside the hall which is used mainly for storage for the church and for the nursery school who are regular weekday hall users. |
|
The Lych Gate is
the roofed gateway of the churchyard (really
part of the church), lyc
being the old English word for corpse or body. Thus the words lych
gate really means corpse gate. In the Middle Ages most people were
buried in just shrouds rather than coffins, the dead being carried
to the lych gate and placed on a bier, where the priest conducted
the first part of the funeral service under its temporary shelter.
The clergyman always led the funeral procession into the church,
and he still does so. |
| This is because he is the
representative of the Church which is commending the soul of the
dead person to God. It also served to shelter
the pall-bearers while the bier was brought from the church.
St. James's lych gate consists of a roofed porch like structure over a gate, built of wood with four upright wooden posts in a rectangular shape. On top of this are a number of beams holding a pitched roof covered clay tiles. Lych gates used to be found at the traditional entrance to the churchyard, and St. James's lych gate used to be nearer St. James's Road, being moved to its present site in the early 1900s. |
| Graves |
|
Gravestones
and Headstones serve as memorials to the dead. Their inscriptions
can tell us a little of the history of the families who have lived
in the district. They are made of stone, marble or granite. An epitaph may be carved on them. R.l.P. stands for the Latin words Requiescat In Pace, meaning 'rest in peace'. The incumbent must give permission before gravestones are erected but our churchyard was closed for burials, except in family graves, in 1992 and it is now maintained by contractors to the Council of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. See the Graves images page. |
| The War Memorial was built in 1920 after the Armistice in November 1918 at the end of the first world war. At a meeting with the Rev. R. Coad-Pryor, it was decided to erect a memorial to all those parishoners who had lost their lives during that war. One hundred and fifty one men and two women from Hampton Hill lost their lives during both world wars. Their names are engraved on the Parish War Memorial together with the following inscription. Wreaths are laid at the War Memorial in a ceremony on Remembrance Sunday. 'Their name liveth for evermore |
|
|
There are twelve
Canadian and five British graves all from the First World War.
These are the graves of soldiers who died in Upper Lodge in nearby
Bushy Park when it was used as a Canadian Military Hospital. These
graves are maintained to a very high standard by the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission. |
The
Garden of Rest is where the ashes of loved ones can be buried
and remembered. |
 |
 |
| Trees, Shrubs and Flowers |
Some of the trees, shrubs and flowers growing
in the churchyard have long been thought to have a symbolic meaning.
They remind us of things connected with the Christian faith. See
the Churchyard images page. |
| The
Yew Trees are very old.
The yew is slow-growing and a very long-lived tree, so it has been
looked upon as a symbol of immortality and therefore a suitable
tree to be planted in the place where people are buried. |
 |
 |
The prickly leaves
of The Holly Tree have often
been thought of as a reminder of the crown of thorns which Jesus
wore when He was crucified. The red berries are like drops of blood,
and serve to remind us that Christ's blood was shed for us. Thus the holly tree has come to be known as a reminder of the Passion of Christ. |
The
Laurel is another evergreen shrub which has long been thought
of as an emblem of victory and distinction with a laurel wreath,
a circular wreath made of interlocking branches and leaves, being
awarded to winners of ancient games. They were adopted as a symbol of Christian victory and can remind us of the great victory of Christ over sin and death. |
 |
 |
The Daffodil and the Lily remind us of everlasting life. Though the bulbs look dead when they are placed in the ground, new life springs within them and they blossom into beautiful flowers. So our church is decorated with such blooms especially at Easter time. The Lily of the Valley, with its white blossoms is a symbol of purity and humility, and it is often associated with Mary the mother of Jesus. |
|
 |
The
Clover, being a three-leaved plant is an obvious symbol of
the Holy Trinity. Each leaf has three parts, which are not three
separate leaves, but one leaf. So likewise, God is God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; yet He is not three Gods, but
one. |
 |
| Further Information |
|
 |
Contact the Parish Office 020 8941 6003 |
 |
Associated pages on this website: Churchyard Records | Churchyard Through the Years | Images of the Churchyard | Images of the Churchyard in the Autumn | Churchyard - Spring |Images of the Churchyard in the Snow Through the Years: Our Churchyard (1888 May) | War Memorial (1916 October) | Graves in the Churchyard (1951 July) | The Hero who Lived at Wayside (1971 December) | The Garden of Remembrance (1983 September) | Churchyard Records (2001 January) |