Shared Burial Grounds

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of cremation, there is once again a shortage of burial space in some parts of the country. Chancellors dealing with petitions for faculties reserving grave spaces are finding that more and more parochial church councils are opposing reservation as they see that the available space is running out. In rural areas it may be possible to persuade a farmer or landowner to part with some land to form a new burial ground, perhaps serving a number of adjacent parishes. Section 35 of the Church Property Measure 2018 sets out the law relating to shared burial grounds, developed in a series of nineteenth-century Acts which a modern reader would find both prolix and overcomplicated. This article explores the history and practical workings of the law, illustrating these by reference to a prime example of a shared burial ground, the Mill Road Cemetery (more formally the Parochial Burial Grounds) in Cambridge.1 The law as to rights in graves and the memorials placed on them causes much misunderstanding. Our account will show that the same may be true with regard to the burial ground as a whole.