English Heritage and the Church of England Guidance for best ...

ANNEXES: Annexe E3
new state to which consecration
elevates persons or things is permanent.
Land set aside for God as described
above cannot be taken away by any
legal mechanism, and the status of
consecration will remain even when the
legal effects are removed. Some Church
of England diocesan guidelines specify
that consecrated earth should not be
removed from the curtilage of the
churchyard.The reason for this is to
prevent human remains mixed in the soil
being disrespectfully deposited in landfill
or garden sites, for example. If soil has
to be removed, for example as part of
a large development of the site, then it
should be carefully sifted to remove
human remains.
172 ‘Since in baptism the body was marked
with the seal of the Trinity and became
the temple of the Holy Spirit, Christians
respect and honour the bodies of the
dead and the places where they rest.’ 3
Monastic and other disused
burial grounds
173 The burial grounds around monasteries
often functioned as magnets for burials
by the lay population. In post-
Reformation England, following the
dissolution of the monasteries, the
protection of the Church was removed
in the case of monastic burial grounds
where these no longer form part of a
cathedral precinct (such as at Gloucester
Cathedral) or parish churchyard (such
as at Malmesbury Abbey).These burial
grounds, often forgotten and built over,
are still consecrated ground.The Church
of England has no legal locus at monastic
cemeteries and others no longer under
its jurisdiction, but it has lobbied in the
past for respectful treatment of Christian
burials in cases beyond its jurisdiction,
often successfully as at the recent
clearance of St Pancras Old Church
cemetery in advance of the construction
of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, or in the
30
case of Cherry Hinton mentioned
above.There have also been several cases
of monastic orders present in this country
asking for consultation on the handling and
reburial of excavated burials from ‘their’
monastic sites, for example the Cistercians
at the former Cistercian abbey burial
ground at the St Mary Stratford
Langthorne site, London.
174 In most cases the burials will simply be
treated as the secular authorities see fit.
Legally they will be dealt with under
secular planning law, and the Church will
generally not be consulted.The relevant
monastic orders, or the church of the
parish within which the burial ground is
to be found, might be considered to
have a residual ethical duty of care in
such burial grounds, should they wish
to exercise this.
175 Disused burial grounds and ruined
churches present special problems.
Legally, many rural, ruined parish
churches and their churchyards are
still consecrated, and remain within 1
the faculty jurisdiction, as do some
cemeteries and churchyards around
redundant churches in alternative use.
In the latter cases the protection of the
Church for the burials is assured through
this legal protection.
2
176 The case is less clear with ruined
churches and their burial grounds,
which may still be legally the charge of
the parish in which they lie, but which
may now occupy land owned by a
secular landowner (commonly a farmer).
3
Since the curtilage is now often
obscured and burials rarely marked,
burials may be ploughed up or
otherwise disturbed. Although the
protection of the Church into which
the deceased were committed has often
practically lapsed, the Church still has an
ethical and legal duty of care for these
burial grounds.
177 In conclusion, separate Christian
cemeteries have existed in England since
at least the 4th century. Some of these
were related to church buildings,
others not. Urban burial in cemeteries
and churchyards in English towns dates
from perhaps as early as the 7th century,
and the 8th century at the latest, from
which date also they may have been
consecrated, and these guidelines
contend that this should be assumed;
consecration of churchyards and
cemeteries was certainly common
practice from the 10th century.Where
these cemeteries and churchyards are
no longer within the curtilage of a parish
church or cathedral church, or otherwise
not under the Church’s jurisdiction,
the Church’s legal protection of the
Christian dead has lapsed in favour of
the secular; however, an ethical interest
or duty of care remains, as the dead
were committed into the care of the
Church upon burial.
Notes
Zadora-Rio, E 2003 ‘The making of
churchyards and parish territories in the
early medieval landscape of France and
England in the 7th–12th centuries;
a reconsideration’, Medieval Archaeology
47, 1–19
Gittos, M 2002 ‘Creating the sacred:
Anglo-Saxon rites for consecrating
churchyards’, in Lucy, S and Reynolds,
A (eds) Burial in Early Medieval England
and Wales. SMA Monograph 17. London:
Society for Medieval Archaeology
Liturgy Office of the Bishop’s
Conference of England and Wales 1991
Order of Christian Funerals. London:
Geoffrey Chapman, 6