Last week I met with Katrine Smith, the Cemetery Officer for Teignbridge District Council. She very kindly, and with great enthusiasm, showed me the records that are held on the Teignmouth Old Cemetery.
We looked at the fascinating old map of the burial plots and looked up the records of Leah Laforgue, the first person whose grave we cleared as part of this project.
We also identified the records of Mary Bowden, the first person to be buried in the cemetery on 4th February 1856 and is in an unmarked grave.
A few days ago I received an email from Jaki, one of the FOTC Friends:
“Was just in London and friend’s flat backs onto Brompton Cemetery. Walked through there. Some areas totally overgrown but they are clearing and working to restore and have an ongoing project.”
So WE ARE NOT ALONE!
Accompanying the text below are some of the photos that Jaki took.
National Federation of Cemetery Friends
Protect our cemetery for everyone
All over the country there are groups working to restore local cemeteries. We have contacted the National Federation of Cemetery Friends which represents groups of volunteers interested in conserving cemeteries large and small. The Cemetery Friends give their time clearing and maintaining areas, often working with local ecology groups to maintain a balance between wildlife and heritage. Friends may also provide guided walks, open days and special events and work on projects with English Heritage and other organisations. Some groups have restored memorials and chapels.
Associate members of the National Federation include trusts, councils, organisations who manage cemeteries and burials and individual members who are not part of a Friends group but share in their values.
They have produced an excellent booklet “Saving Cemeteries, A Handbook for Cemetery Friends” which draws on experiences from a number of Friends groups across the country. It includes case studies on: Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol; Woodbury Park Cemetery, Tunbridge Wells; Flaybrick Cemetery, Birkenhead; Sheffield General Cemetery; Beckett Street Cemetery, Leeds; The Rosary, Norwich; Nunhead Cemetery, SE London.
Why should our cemeteries be saved?
A Green Sanctuary
Cemeteries are pieces of ground set aside for burials. There are around 14,000 cemeteries in the UK. Many cemeteries are closed for new burial plots, although they may be open for the interring (burying) of ashes. Many cemeteries are attached to churches, some are operated privately and many are run by Local Authorities.
However, urban burial grounds in the 19th century were originally envisaged as public open spaces, and were professionally designed to be attractive places to visit in their own right. As well as functioning as burial sites, they were also regarded as places for visiting and promenading of “a more dignified and morally uplifting kind”. The nineteenth-century legislation that provided for new burial grounds seemed to have envisaged that they would in due course become public open spaces (for which provision was made in the Open Spaces Acts 1887 and 1906).
Today, many cemeteries are neglected, with little to attract anyone apart from those visiting specific burial plots. This lack of design, planning and ambition means that the potential health and environmental benefits of cemeteries are not being realised.
Incredible Heritage Assets
There is a strong case to be made that cemeteries have especial architectural and landscape interest because they have often been trapped in a time-warp, and have not been modified, adapted, overlaid, or even destroyed, as has so much else in the historic environment.
This is an argument that is becoming increasingly heard elsewhere in Europe. There are a very large number of listed buildings in cemeteries, according to the National Monuments Record Centre, including lodges and houses, boundary walls, gates, mortuary chapels, cemetery chapels, tombs, and mausoleums.
So cemeteries are a unique mirror on our history and heritage whilst offering an opportunity for the future – a return to the original concept of “Open Space”, providing opportunities for encouraging wide community use.
The above includes extracts from the following sources:
To the left of the lodge is the remains of a second chapel. Until a couple of weeks ago this was covered with ivy and full of bramble and ivy. The overgrowth has now been cut back but there is still quite a bit of work left to bring the inside down to its original floor level. As the clearance progressed a lot of masonry came to light. It appears that fragments of broken headstones have been left here – it would be interesting to trace their original grave locations. Click Here to see some photos:
On 30th January Teignbridge opened up the Lodge buildings for us to have a look inside. There is evidently quite a lot of internal damage although the buildings themselves seemed to be reasonably structurally sound. Click on the following page to see some pictures:
We have recently submitted to Teignbridge District Council an Expression of Interest for the community use of the Old Cemetery buildings and site. As part of that we were also asked to submit a business plan.
Our response to that particular point was:
“With only two weeks, and no prior notice, to produce such a plan it would be disingenuous to produce anything which purported to be a definitive business proposition. However, we do have a clearly thought through view which is presented in this Outline Business Strategy. Our strength as a group is that we can call upon a wide range of skills, experiences and views to shape a cogent way forward for full community use of the site.
Our understanding is that at least one other organisation has had prior notice of the Expression of Interest and dealings with Teignbridge about the future of the site. They will, therefore, have had more time to prepare a full business plan. We hope that this is not pre-determination and that our proposition will not be discounted simply on the basis of not having had sufficient time or access to knowledge to produce such a plan.”
Teignbridge have said that they will be evaluating all Expressions of Interest over the next couple of weeks. It is probably best, in case we jeopardise our submission, that we hold back on publicising the full content here. But you can see a brief summary of the approach we have suggested at the following page: Expression of Interest Summary.
We have recently officially established the “Friends of Teignmouth Cemetery” (FOTC) to promote the restoration and conservation of the Old Cemetery grounds and buildings and to encourage broad community use of those amenities in any way which is sympathetic to the site.
Details of FOTC and its activities are posted on a separate page on the Main Menu.
If you would like to become a Friend just follow the joining instructions posted there.
TEIGNBRIDGE Council has withdrawn its change of use plans for the old cemetery chapel in Teignmouth. In 2015, the council had put in an application to convert…
Last Wednesday (25th January 2017) we were given access to the inside of the boarded up chapel. Obviously we took the opportunity to take some photos which have been placed on the “Cemetery” page which you can reach through the main menu or just click on the following link: In The Chapel
All this community pressure has brought interest in the Cemetery out into the open. There was an excellent spread in the Torquay Herald Express of 23rd January. You can see this online through our publicity page. Just click HERE and select the item.
There has also been a front page and inner page spread in the Teignmouth Post of 27th January which is reasonably balanced although it does lead with the proposal from the company we managed to unearth as a result of our media activity. There is also a little journalistic licence to create a good story by portraying us as “competing groups”, whereas what we are trying to ensure is that there is complete transparency and community consultation about the restoration of the buildings with broad multi-purpose community use in mind. There isn’t an on-line link to the story but, for those who have not been able to see a copy of the paper, I have scanned in the article by reporter John Ware below.
Thanks to everyone who turned up at the Community Photoshoot on Sunday. It was an impressive turnout and confirms the level of community support there is for the cemetery and buildings. Tony Wilson took a few photos and I am posting one of the group shots here. I will add the others, which are shots of the buildings to another page when I have a spare moment.
Walking Tour
The idea of having a “history trail” around the cemetery has been mooted. The Walk This Way walking group went up to the Cemetery yesterday to have a short history walk around some of the graves which have already been cleared. There are some photos of that published on the Walk This Way Facebook site: walkthiswayteignmouth
Press Release
I have sent a press release to both the Teignmouth Post and Torquay Herald Express about the photoshoot. It will be interesting to see if they are published (an earlier release to Teignmouth Post was not published last week). Here is what the release says:
“Local residents met on Sunday at the Teignmouth Old Cemetery Chapel to demonstrate their support for a community group comprising local people and charitable organisations, working together to submit an Expression of Interest to Teignbridge. Their aim is to gain a long lease on the buildings and bring them back under the auspices of the local community.
A number of people have volunteered much time over the last couple of years to clear and plant around some of the sadly neglected historical graves. Now they are setting up a ‘Friends of Teignmouth Cemetery’ to enable this work to continue and to develop several ideas for sympathetic and yet sustainable use of both the cemetery and its buildings.
People feel that this is the correct and democratic vehicle through which to submit a proposal and hope that Teignbridge will assist them in taking it out to wider public consultation so that a single project for multiple community use of that area can be established to the benefit of all parts of the community.
If you would like more information or an application form to join the ‘Friends of Teignmouth Cemetery’ email: gravetales@gmail.com”
International Support
Finally, Teignmouth Cemetery is going global. This is a comment I have received from Sharon Williams who lives in Vancouver:
Although I live in Canada, I wish you luck in your fight to keep the cemetery building as a community use. I visited my great grandparents’ grave every month with my Gran back in the 50’s/60’s – to tend and leave fresh flowers – and have vivid memories of the peacefulness of the cemetery. Regards. Sharon Williams, Vancouver. British Columbia.
Last week I met with Katrine Smith, the Cemetery Officer for Teignbridge District Council. She very kindly, and with great enthusiasm, showed me the records that are held on the Teignmouth Old Cemetery.
Teignmouth Old Cemetery 