This matter has been a source of great concern to me since coming into the parish, and trying to deal with the various individual problems that have arisen in connection with it has taken up a great deal of my time. Now, after writing many letters, buying three legal books, and having had an interview with the Diocesan Registrar, I think I have got the position clear.

One thing to be borne in mind is that a parish churchyard is different in many respects from a public cemetery. In a cemetery a person can purchase a piece of land from the Borough Council to be his own property for ever. But a parish churchyard is regarded in law as the common grave of the parish and not as a collection of graves. No one can claim any portion of it as his own personal property.

Every parishioner has a right to be buried in the churchyard in normal circumstances, but not in any particular part of it. In the past, people have formed the impression that they have purchased in the churchyard pieces of land on payment of a fee - usually very much smaller than that required in a public cemetery, and no one has objected to this, as far as I know. But these fees, given and received in good faith, have no legal authority. They have been in operation here for many years - perhaps ever since the churchyard was opened - but their only justification is in longstanding custom. They do not give any exclusive right to any particular grave-space, and no ground can legally be reserved in advance on payment of a fee. Even the erection of a headstone and curb gives no exclusive right to the whole area thus enclosed - though normally, of course, while there was plenty of room remaining in the churchyard the incumbent would not permit anyone except a member of the same family to be buried therein.

The only way of obtaining an exclusive, right to a grave-space is by faculty (i.e. permission granted by the Chancellor of the Diocese). This is not usually granted unless there is plenty of room left in the churchyard, and the applicant can show some special connection with the parish. If granted, the legal fee would be about five guineas.

In the past, the questions of reservations for family graves has not caused much difficulty because there has been plenty of space left elsewhere. Now, when there is only a little space left, it is acute. In future, it will have to be recognised that everyone buried in the churchyard is, as it were, ‘buried at his own risk’. There can be no guarantee that other members of his family will be able to be buried near him.

With regard to the many difficulties left over from the past, it is thought that the first thing to be done is for those who have had pieces of ground reserved to them to meet together and send in a joint application for a confirmatory faculty; otherwise their reservations have no legal validity.

A faculty may also he granted for the deepening of a grave in certain conditions so that husband and wife may be buried together. (One trouble here has been that in winter, graves can rarely be dug deep enough for more than one interment.)

In the four or five special cases with which I have been dealing lately, there is every hope that faculties may be granted, but not in any future cases, when the position has been made clear.

To help people in any special problems, to answer any questions and to help in the preparation of the applications for the faculties required, I shall be in the Vestry on Wednesday, July 11th, at 8.0 p.m., and I hope that all who feel that anything written in this article concerns them will do their best to be present.

Source: The Hampton Hill Parish Magazine - 1951 July

I am sorry that because of the mention of a point that was far from being the main issue, a good deal of needless worry seems to have been caused. The fact that no one has an exclusive right to any grave except by faculty, even when a memorial has been erected, and the grave is lovingly tended has been interpreted in ways that have caused unnecessary alarm. It has been taken to mean that perhaps the vicar will at any time in the near future open such a grave and bury within it a complete stranger. Nothing of course is further from my intention. I mentioned the fact only in illustration of what is the law about the whole matter. But no marked and cared-for grave-space would ever be interfered with, except as a very last resort - and when that stage is reached, most, if not all, of them would be full. The need for protection by faculty hardly arises here.

When no new ground is available, what would be the procedure then? Well, it now appears that there is more free space than I at first thought, and this may well last even for as long as twelve or fifteen years. There are some unaccountably vacant strips in the old part, and there are pathways in the new which will in time be dug up. But sooner or later, an end to this will come. Then, all ground that had been reserved but not protected by faculty might have to be used first - though I myself should hope to leave this a little longer, and take first the neglected, unmarked graves (of which there are unfortunately far too many) where places are known to exist, but no one took any further interest. After these, certain marked grave-spaces, where the family was known to have died out or to have left the district, and to need the empty places no longer. We have already been told of several such cases, including one family-grave which is completely empty, though it has a big monument upon it; but the person commemorated is not buried therein, and we hope in time to move the memorial to another place where no grave could be dug and to utilise the ground thus freed. And then other neglected graves would have to come up for consideration, even though marked and monumented, if it were known that there were some places left in them. But I cannot easily envisage the possibility that a marked and well-cared for grave might be taken for one who was not a member of the family concerned. This issue would arise only if there were no room at all anywhere else. The stage may ultimately be reached when the only places left for interment are in such graves, and a parishioner dying before a member of the families concerned would undoubtedly have a right to be buried in one of these graves, unless they were protected by faculty. Therefore, though the matter may never become pressing, it is advisable for people who have places in graves that are likely to be unused for some years to allow their names to go forward as petitioners for a faculty to grant them exclusive right to these.

The far more pressing issue, of course, and the one which I had mainly in mind, is that of the reservation of empty grave-spaces. In some cases these have been reserved for sons and daughters, and even grandsons, etc., who might conceivably live for thirty or forty years, or even longer. Without a faculty, of course, these could not be kept for anything like so long, and after the present cases have been dealt with, no further faculties for reservation of empty spaces are likely to be granted. All such reservations in the future will have to be on a strictly provisional and temporary basis. I shall try to keep spaces for members of the same family near to a used grave as long as there is still free space for other new graves elsewhere, but the filling-up of the ground available obviously puts a time-limit to this, as I have mentioned above.

Some people who have been worried are those who have the least need to do so at all - the old people, who have been anxious whether anything may now prevent them from resting in a dearly-loved husband’s or wife’s grave. I am very sorry if distress has been unwittingly caused to some of them. There is no necessity for any anxiety at all on their part, and though I am entering their names on the list of petitioners for the faculty to make absolutely sure, there is really no need. They are quite safe without it.

Source: The Hampton Hill Parish Magazine - 1951 August

Tile matter of the Churchyard was further discussed, and the Council agreed to support an application for an omnibus faculty. It was alsp laid down that no one who was not a Parishioner should be allocated a new grave-space.

Source: The Hampton Hill Parish Magazine - 1951 September