Englishcombe

The Church of St Peter, Englishcombe is Norman in origin but rebuilt by the de Gournay family and in 1840 repaired with an addition of 60 sittings.

Histories and descriptions of the parish and the church can be found at:

• The Parish of Englishcombe - A History by Jean Manco (1995) https://www.englishcombe.net/pdf/englishcombe%20history%20-%20manco.pdf
• A Short Guide to Englishcombe Parish Church with some notes on its history and of that of the Manor (4th edition 2007) http://www.englishcombe.net/pdf/Short%20Guide%20A4%20pdf.pdf

The churchyard is on all four sides of the church. A survey was started out in about 2002 but never completed. No sexton’s book describing who is buried where seems to have survived. In the absence of this, the original survey divided the churchyard into arbitrary areas A-L with numbers then assigned to the surviving memorials.

Burials per year

In the period from 1784 to present there had been 1,179 burials. The number of burials per year was between 6 and 10 during the 19th century, this decreasing over the next 50 years to less than one per year. The churchyard is now ‘closed’ with only the burial of cremated remains outside the eastern end of the church.

Areas

Englishcombe Church from Haycombe cemetery

The northern side of the churchyard has the graves arranged in a grid aligned with the line of the northern wall of the church. The graves in the southern area are quite sparse but also seem to be arranged in a grid.