Bath and Wells Consistory Court: Briden Ch, February 2004
Part of the Churchyard had been reserved in perpetuity by a conveyance dated 1933 under the Consecration of Churchyards Act 1867 for the burial of members of one particular family. The departure of that family from the parish resulted in the donation by the family of the reserved land to the parish for other burials. However, the landowner had petitioned for a faculty to reserve a small part of the donated land for the continuing burial of members of his family. The chancellor held that a faculty was not strictly necessary as the land was still reserved under the 1933 conveyance. However, a faculty was granted reserving the small portion of donated land for 100 years. In addition the chancellor had received a petition from an individual parishioner for the reservation of a double-depth grave space in the same churchyard. The PCC, who had supported the first petition which had increased the area of the churchyard that was available for burials, opposed the second on the grounds that there was little space left for burials and that it did not wish that limited space to be limited further by reservations. The incumbent (who had subsequently retired) had supported the petition. In granting the faculty the chancellor stated that such matters were entirely in the discretion of the court, that the petition was exceptional, that it did not set a precedent for future reservations and that, in the light of the small amount of space remaining, future petitions would be unlikely to succeed.
(2004) 7 Ecc LJ 497-498
