A Burial Ground For Charfield

For over a decade, Charfield has been without a burial ground, after the closure of St. James in Churchend. The Parish Council searched without success for many years until, in 2007, Lord Ducie and the Tortworth Estate very kindly offered to donate a plot of land at Churchend.

This plot is in a lovely spot, bounded on three sides by dry stone walls and overlooking the village below and with views across to Wotton under Edge and the Cotswold Escarpment. Before making any decision or committing parish funds, the Parish Council surveyed the residents to ascertain the desire to establish a new burial ground (in April 2007). The result was positive, and the Council committed itself to creating the burial facility.

This is a large endeavour, and the Council is progressing steadily and without rushing, in order not to over-burden the residents of Charfield Parish with unnecessary costs. The Council is very much aware that for some elderly parishioners this project is of vital personal importance, and will do everything it can to ensure Planning is approved in 2010.

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NEWS: The Planning Application was Approved in March 2010 but with conditions attached, some of which are significantly challenging. Before we can progress we will need to meet again with South Gloucestershire planners to discuss the detail of the conditions, and whether they are reasonable proportionate conditions with regard to our intentions.

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This application was made after the Council commissioned several site surveys, both desk top and invasive, for water table and drainage, habitat and ecology, and archaeology. The Council also sought specialist input from burial ground consultants, from the South Gloucestershire planners and from other sources. All the surveys gave acceptable results. The Council is committed to developing the site with a positive environmental attitude throughout, and intends that the facility provides burial space for Charfield Parishioners for at least the next fifty to a hundred years.

The Burial Ground Working Group will not be idle while the Planning Application is considered, and is now working to develop the landscaping, and Burial Ground Rules and Regulations, as well as a Tariff structure for use when the ground opens to parishioners. Interested parties are, as ever, encouraged to get in touch – in the first instance via the Parish Clerk – but no burials can be considered at this time.

This page will be updated as operations progress, do please keep visiting.
A web site is also in preparation at http://www.charfieldburialground.org.uk.
The Council is of course interested in the views of residents, and these can be emailed to the Clerk at the normal address.