Churchwardens Manual | Page 8

lovely flowers, and in beautiful order, while the adjoining Churchyard is starved. Let each receive the attention which is its proper due.
With regard to closed Churchyards the obligations of the Churchwardens in rural parishes with respect to maintaining and repairing closed Churchyards, wherever the expenses of such maintenance and repair are repayable out of the Poor Rate under the Burial Act, 1855, {30a} are transferred to the Parish Council. Provided that such obligations shall not in the case of any particular parish be deemed to attach, unless or until the Churchwardens subsequent to the passing of this Act shall give a certificate as in the Burial Act, 1855, provided, in order to obtain the repayment of such expenses out of the Poor Rate (sec. 6, II, b).
It has been decided that {30b} if a Churchyard is closed by order in Council it must be kept in order by the Churchwardens, and if it be a Cemetery formed by a Burial Board, then by the Burial Board. In the former case the expenses would, under the Local Government Act, be repaid to the Churchwardens in rural parishes by the Parish Council, on presentation of the proper certificate as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
If the Churchyard requires enlargement, and an adjoining piece of ground can be obtained, it is well to remember that a special Act has been passed (30 and 31 Vict., c. 133) for diminishing the expense connected with the consecration of ground so added to an old Churchyard. The form of conveyance is given in the Act; the powers given in the School Sites' Act "to persons being seised in fee simple, fee tail, or for life of and in any manor or lands of freehold, copyhold or customary tenure, and having the beneficial interest therein, to grant, convey, or enfranchise by way of gift, sale or exchange in fee simple, or for term of years, any quantity not exceeding one acre of such land as a site for a school" are "deemed to apply to all persons desirous of granting land for the purpose of such enlargement" (of an existing Churchyard) "in the same way as if the said land had been granted as a site for a school."
In cases in which it is wished to provide a burial ground under a burial board, the first step to be taken is for a vestry to be summoned seven days before the holding of such meeting, to take the subject into consideration, and if it is agreed to proceed in the matter, a requisition to that effect must be sent to the Home Secretary, and the officials of the Home Office will send down full directions as to the mode of procedure. {32}
The following general information on this subject may be found of use:--
The enlargement of a Churchyard sometimes makes it necessary that graves should be built over, or the bodies therein contained removed to another part of the Churchyard, and it occasionally happens that the parties interested object to the former but are prepared to agree to the latter. It is well, therefore, to know that this removal can take place by faculty granted by the ordinary for that purpose without application to the Home Secretary (20 and 21 Vict., cap. 81, s. 25). When a Churchyard is closed and a cemetery has been provided under a burial board to be used for interments, the custody of the old registers belongs to the Incumbent, and he is entitled to the fees for certificates of burial previous to the closing of the Churchyard, but the custody of the registers of interments in the cemetery belongs to the chaplain or officer of the burial board. The Act 52 Geo. III., cap. 146, s. 4, requiring certificates of burials in any other place than the Churchyard of the Parish Church to be sent to the Incumbent, has been repealed as far as burials are concerned in grounds provided by the Burial Acts (20 and 21 Vict., cap. 81, s. 15).
Then I wish that it were universally acknowledged that the next step should be for a new Churchwarden to inspect the Church goods which are placed under his charge; to see that they tally accurately with the list which ought to be kept in the iron chest of all movable articles belonging to the Church in that parish. {34a} If this were universally done we should not hear, as we do now unfortunately hear from time to time, of Church goods having disappeared during a vacancy, or of registers being missing which may be absolutely invaluable. Legally speaking, the safe custody of the furniture of the Church rests upon the Churchwardens. {34b} This list should be signed by the Incumbent and Churchwardens, and kept in the parish chest, and include all movable