Churchyard project
Kineton and District Local History Group has just embarked on a big project.
With the popularity of TV programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are, more and more frequently the group is asked if it can assist people who come to Kineton searching for the graves of their forebears. Unbelievably we can trace no plan of St Peter’s churchyard to help them, and often they go home disappointed.
So, we have just started to map the churchyard, and then plan to study and record the inscriptions, to photograph all the stones before they deteriorate further, and to present the results to as wide a public as we can – probably through the internet, certainly through this website, but also by display, or a small booklet in the church, accessible to all.
Kineton Local History Group has about 90 members, but our numbers have been augmented by interested residents of the village because the task that lies ahead is a big one. There are over 500 graves in the churchyard, not to mention those in the churchyard extension, which we may tackle at a later date! So far about twelve members of the group have been seen in the churchyard, blowing on numb fingers as they hold tapes and ranging poles for the surveying work.
Unless the weather takes another turn for the worse, the plan of the churchyard will be ready in the early spring, as we hoped. The mapping of the churchyard is a necessary first step, and then the recording of the inscriptions can begin. There are another 30 people waiting for their chance to read the inscriptions and photograph the memorials, work that we hope will be able to start in March. With luck, by then, required covering will be sunhats and Factor 15, rather than the hats, gloves and polar outfits that have graced the volunteers up to now!
May 2010
Despite the polar conditions we experienced during the winter and early spring, it has been largely dry! Therefore the mapping was completed on time, and the recording is going to plan. The details of some 200 graves are already on the website, and 50 years of the Burial Registers – from 1790 to 1840 - have been transcribed and are available for all. Photographs of the graves will be added as soon as they become available, and the map will be attached to the website shortly. We are also planning a permanent copy for display in the churchyard itself.
Now that there is (relatively) much less to do, a team has been excavating, and where advisable recovering, graves buried almost completely in the turf. Many of them were unknown, and have never previously been recorded. Careful cutting of undergrowth has also allowed us to read inscriptions and details that add to our knowledge of the residents of long ago.
