THE Consistory Court of the diocese of Lincoln has refused to grant a college to allow cremated stays to be interred in a grave space that may otherwise be used for the burial of bodily stays, within the churchyard of St Mary’s, Claxby.
The petition for the college was brought by the family of the late Stephen Cade, in order that a full-sized memorial may very well be erected over the grave, setting out the story of the deceased’s family relationships. It was also envisaged that, at a later stage, the cremated stays of the deceased’s widow may very well be received into the identical burial plot, and her details added to the memorial stone.
The deceased had no right of burial arising from his residence within the parish. He had links with Claxby, nevertheless, because he was born there and had lived in Claxby until he was 28. His parents were buried within the churchyard, and his two older brothers rang the bells at St Mary’s.
The diocesan Chancellor, the Worshipful Judge Mark Bishop, said that he could understand why Mr Cade and his family would need his stays to be interred in St Mary’s churchyard. It was clear that the church community was sympathetic to that, and would need to accommodate an interment of ashes in a plot conforming with the Churchyard Regulations.
The family’s concern was that the memorial stone wouldn’t be large enough to contain the detail that they wished to be included on it, and, for that reason, they wished the cremated stays to be interred in a grave where a full memorial stone may very well be erected.
The PCC had refused the appliance, on the idea that space within the churchyard was at a premium, and that there have been just one or two spaces left. Another area had been identified for extension of the churchyard, although that had not yet happened, and the PCC was concerned concerning the time it could take for that to be accomplished and the danger of running out of grave spaces.
The Chancellor sad that he couldn’t grant the college, because efficient use should be product of the land which the churchyard had for burials. If the grave spaces which were for bodily stays were used for the interment of ashes, the Chancellor said, then there can be a reduced number of accessible grave spaces for many who wished to have a burial. It can be unfair, he said, if the churchyard ran out of grave spaces for full burials because they’d been taken up with cremated stays. Obviously, the scale of a grave was much larger than the scale of an area for cremated stays.
Mr Cade’s cremated stays may very well be interred within the churchyard of St Mary’s, but in a plot for cremated stays, the Chancellor ruled.
The Chancellor recognised that his decision can be disappointing for the family, but he hoped that they understood that he couldn’t set a precedent for the appliance that they’d made.
