Chester Consistory Court; Lomas Ch. December 1996

The petitioner sought a faculty for the introduction of a memorial over the place in the churchyard where the cremated remains of his mother and father were interred. The petition was opposed by the incumbent and churchwardens on behalf of themselves and the PCC. The proposed triangular memorial had been fashioned in York stone and was intended to represent the bow of a liner because the petitioner's parents had travelled to Tasmania by ship, later to return. Since 1982 the parish had followed the diocesan regulations relating to memorials and they had been carefully adhered to ever since, being formally adopted as a matter of PCC policy in June 1984 and subsequently reaffirmed. During that time two memorials falling outside those permitted by the regulations had been permitted by faculty. In this case the Chancellor, concurring with the advice of the DAC. did not see any exceptional artistic merit in the memorial such as to justify a departure from the parish policy. He also accepted evidence that its introduction would render the maintenance of the churchyard more difficult since the triangular memorial would have to be removed from its base to permit the passage of a lawn mower. Accordingly the petition was dismissed with costs.

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(1997) 4 Ecc LJ 766