Churchyard and Burial Ground

Although anyone from the parish of Kelvedon can be buried in the burial ground, we receive no help either financial or physical from the Parish, District or County Councils. So with an aging congregation, we find it harder and harder to keep the outside areas of the church in good order. We are therefore currently fortunate to have men from the Community Payback Team undertaking this work. 

These men have been convicted of an offence, but the nature of the offence, a judge has ordered, does not warrant a custodial prison sentence, but they should serve a number of hours doing unpaid work in the community to pay back  what they have done.  This scheme is carefully monitored by the Probation Service and we are fortunate that we at St Mary's have been selected as an appropriate site, with suitable work that they could do.  This work must be challenging and must be work that the partner organisation is not able to fund.  The group does not take work away from individuals who would be paid. The church doesn't have the funds to pay gardeners to maintain these large areas.   The men come approximately twice a month for a full day's work. So if things get over grown at certain times of year, please forgive us.  We and the Payback Team are doing our best. 

The Churchyard surrounding the church is no longer used for burials as it is full, so burials take place in the Burial ground opposite the church. The Churcyard is managed for wildlife, wild flowers etc.  An ancient churchyard such as this has had no intensive management over the hundreds of years it has been in use, wildlife flourishes but needs to be managed or it could become full of brambles and rampant bushes, so a programme set up in conjunction with the Diocesan Wildlife Advisor is followed. Mowing is done at specific times of the year to encourage wild flowers.  
 

Only the grass immediately around the church is cut short. In the Burial Ground we prioritise the mowing, cutting back, tidying etc in the area where burials currently take place, that is the area furthest away from Church Street. These are the graves that are regularly visited by families, the area nearer  Church Street has much older graves, we tidy this when time allows, but few descendants visit it. We also make sure the area for cremated remains is tidy. This area can be reached by bearing right through the main gate on Church Street.