Strelley All Saints

Churchyard

The east side of the old
churchyard looking south
The new churchyard

There are two churchyards. The old is trapezoid in shape with the church situated close to the western boundary marked by the B6004, Main Street. The north is bounded by the wall of Strelley Hall’s old stable block: now converted into offices. On the east side a seven foot wall divides the churchyard from the hall and its grounds: a door in the wall allows access between the two. A similar wall bounds the south, separating the churchyard from further land belonging to the hall and the field running up to the moated manor site. The gate to the church is in the south west corner of the yard with the approach to the church dominated by an old yew tree.

Parish records show that, from 1654-1901, 1,510 people were buried in the old churchyard. Many more from the medieval period to 1654 must also be buried here. There remain 46 extant headstones and four tombs.

The space between the chancel and the north transept is railed off and contains the tombs of two members of the Edge family, Julia Francis Edge (d. 29/10/1856 aged 24 and James Thomas Edge (22/01/1894 aged 66).

Grave marker to
John Richards (1744)

The earliest headstone is that of John Richards, d. 27/06/1731, aged 44 and the last that of John Severn, d. 18/12/1915, who was interred with his wife Sarah, d. 18/05/1898.
 
Particularly poignant are the headstones of two families. The first is of Anne Kirk, d 06/12/1762 aged 42 and married to George: which records ‘near to this place Lieth 4 of there Children…….which all died young’ (2 mos, 2, 3, and 7).  The second are headstones belonging to the Price family. Between 1852 and 1868 William Price lost 6 daughters, 3 sons and his wife.  The majority died of TB and one of smallpox ‘9 days previously vaccinated’.  Only William and two other daughters lived out a natural span.

Several conifers and a yew have self seeded and grown to a significant height in the old churchyard.

The enclosed area is 0.17 Ha.

In 1901 the churchyard was deemed full and all subsequent burials took place in a new churchyard of 0.14 Ha, immediately to the west of Main Street, which was consecrated on December 10th of that year. It has a ha ha.

Within the new churchyard is an area reserved for the Edge family: the last Edge in Strelley is buried within it (Emily Mary, 1978).

The war memorial, a Calvary, was erected in 1917 and honours four men who died in the Great War.