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Hickling Local History Group
Parish Churchyard: St. Mary's Parish Church
The Churchyard here at St. Mary's Parish Church, is probably over 1000 years old. One of the History Group’s first projects was to review and complete the survey of the churchyard at St. Mary’s, which was begun by the Women’s Institute in 1980. The W.I. had surveyed only the Old Churchyard. The new extension, opened in 1932 and consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Norwich the Right Reverend Bertram Pollock, M.A., D.D., K.C.V.O. on Saints Philip and James’ day (1st of May), was left unrecorded. The Group’s aim was to re-survey the old churchyard, checking all the existing information, and to create new plans and records, together with a history of the churchyard. All the memorials inside and outside the building itself, and in the Old Churchyard and New Churchyard Extension are recorded here. There are now also burial plans for the New Churchyard Extension, and for the Site for the Burial of Cremated Remains. These plans show where people are buried, even if there is no memorial.
The “Churchyard Survey” records produced by the Group in three volumes were presented to St. Mary’s on 14th of December 2003, and were received by the Reverend Neville Khambatta on behalf of the Parochial Parish Council. The records are permanently on display inside the church and can be accessed from the Links below.
The first volume, titled “INTRODUCTION” contains: The complete alphabetical register of names found in both old and new churchyards (N.B. not on memorials inside the church); notes for the churchyard browser; a brief history of St. Mary’s churchyard; the story of the survey; descriptions of monument shapes; drawings of memorials provided by Group members and village artists, and photographs of the survey team at work.
The second volume titled “CHURCH AND OLD CHURCHYARD” contains: The Alphabetical Register of names found on memorial stones in the old churchyard which includes the more recent cremation plots; the Numerical Register of Graves giving the inscriptions on the memorial stones; a digitised plan of the churchyard; a plan of the Cremation Plots, and instructions on how to find a grave or monument. A further section of this book records the inscriptions on the memorials inside the church, and over the porch outside (these not listed in the Alphabetical Register).
The Third volume titled “NEW CHURCHYARD” contains: The Alphabetical Register of people buried in the new churchyard; the Numerical Register of Graves giving the inscriptions on the memorial stones; a digitised plan of the whole churchyard, the burial plan of the new churchyard extension, and instructions on how to find a grave or monument.
Click on the Links below to view:
NOTE:
Records up to the 30th of June 2011 are displayed on this website. Burial records from the 1st of July 2011 onwards can be viewed only in the books on display at the church.
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