Grave doubts for future

Southwell is running out of space for graves.

It is estimated that the Minster Burial Ground at the end of Bishop’s Drive will be full in two years.

The town council is looking for new sites.

The council leader, Mr Peter Harris, conceded it would be hard to find a suitable town centre site.

“It is a concern that we are running out of space,” he said.

“Burial has become more popular in the last decade.”

Mr Harris said they were looking for an area for a new burial ground but were not in negotiation over any piece of land.

There are around 500 graves in the burial ground. It opened when the churchyard around the minster was closed in 1925. There are 40 plots left.

Although Holy Trinity Church, Southwell, has a burial ground it is only for residents living within its parish, which covers the Westgate area of town.

The rest of Southwell is within the parish of the minster.

If no alternative to the Minster Burial Ground can be found, the nearest cemetery is more than eight miles away in Newark.

Because it is owned by Newark Town Council there is no restriction on who can use it, but people from outside Newark are charged double £630 instead of £315 for an adult burial.

Newark Town Council’s environmental services manager, Mr James Radley, said it was standard procedure to charge double or even treble for people from outside a cemetery parish.

Tithe Green Woodland Burial Ground at Calverton, which offers natural burials in a woodland setting, is a similar distance away.

Both town and district councils can provide burial grounds but neither is obliged to do so.

County councils do have to provide sites but Mr Harris said if council-run cemeteries in other parts of Nottinghamshire were used, it would mean Southwell residents travelling out of the town to visit the graves of relatives.

“What local people want is a local burial ground where they can visit family who have died,” he said.

A spokesman for the minster said one possibility was to extend the current burial ground.

Mr Roger Merryweather, of Brinkley, a former chairman of Southwell Town Council, said issues over space at the burial ground had been raised in the past.

“If you were thinking of burial you would prefer to be close to family and I think that is understandable,” he said.

“It can be difficult if you have got to travel away from the area for a burial ground.”

Mr Merryweather’s great-grandfather, Mr Henry Merryweather, is buried in the minster churchyard and he has other relatives buried in the Minster Burial Ground.

“The most important thing is that we have an attractive area which can be looked after and kept as those who have family there would like it to be kept,” he said.

“This would ideally be attached to the current site.”

Miss Julie Hall, of D. J. Hall Funeral Directors, Southwell, said people often wanted to be buried alongside relatives.

“I am sure the minster will do their best to find another site for the people of Southwell,” she said.