St Alkmund's Churchyard, Whitchurch, Shropshire

A Memory of Whitchurch.

In 1973 a new vicarage was built on part of St Alkmund's churchyard burial ground in Whitchurch, Shropshire which entailed the exhumation of a number of coffins from vaults and the removal of their gravestones and monuments. We have been trying to find a family vault belonging to the 'Kent' family of Green End House, Green End, Whitchurch (which subsequently became Hughes' Commercial Hotel and is now Weston House residential home). We have discovered that the six members of the 'Kent' family were indeed exhumed and their vault was destroyed due to the building of the new vicarage. Newspaper reports of the time indicate that the exhumations were to be reburied in another part of the churchyard but we have been unable to ascertain where that might be as the churchyard was already full and we have already contacted the Church, the Diocese of Lichfield, the local library, the Heritage Centre and searched the Whitchurch Herald with no success at this time. If anyone has any information, or knows anyone else who may be able to help, regarding the exhumations and reburials we would love to hear from them. Also if anyone has any photographs of the churchyard on the East side, looking towards the East window of the church and showing any gravestones or monuments which would have been there prior to the building of the new vicarage, we would love to see them! My e-mail address is mike.beach@tesco.net

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