Graveyard Survey & Information

Looking for information about an ancestor buried in our graveyard? Researching the local history of Chudleigh? We hope the information here can help!

 The church regularly receives enquiries from relatives seeking their ancestors, and we also have a number of interesting gravestones, some of which are listed monuments. The graves were surveyed in 1970, but only the name and year of death was recorded. In 2008 a team of volunteers started recording the full inscriptions and this has now been put onto a searchable spreadsheet, with an accompanying map. With careful cleaning of the stones we were able to read some inscriptions that were recorded as undecipherable in 1970. Conversely, some details recorded then have been lost in the intervening 38 years.

Your Chudleigh ancestor may not be in the Anglican churchyard. Burials may have taken place in;

  • The Church itself, marked by a memorial or floor stone.

  • Overseas, but marked by a memorial.

  • The Baptist graveyard (now a private garden).

  • The Free Church graveyard (previously Congregationalist and U.R.C., and now the site of a playgroup)

  • After 1880 most burials took place in the cemetery.

  • There is some doubt about where Catholics were buried prior to 1880, although some are in Chudleigh churchyard.

  • The Methodist church did not have a graveyard and its members were buried in the Anglican churchyard.

We have attempted to record the burials for all these sites, surveying the remaining gravestones and researching burial registers and church records. We are especially indebted to Roger Brandon and Steve Coombs of the Chudleigh History Group for so much of this work. We hope that the links below will enable you to find your ancestor.

 

Chudleigh Church Graveyard Survey

This is a searchable spreadsheet - please read the Instructions tab before proceeding.

Chudleigh Interior Memorials

This is a searchable spreadsheet of memorials found inside the church building.

Baptist and Free Church Graves and Memorials

The following links will take you to the relevant section on the History Group website – http://chudleighhistorygroup.uk/articles/chapels.html or  http://chudleighhistorygroup.uk/articles/burial_ground.html  This website contains a wealth of information about the town and its inhabitants, – use the ‘Articles‘ button at the top of the page.

Burials in the Cemetery (after 1880)

Contact the Town Clerk’s office via the Town Council website:

http://www.chudleigh-tc.gov.uk or e-mail Clerk@Chudleigh-TC.gov.uk