*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Faculty granted for 'lift and deepen' reburial

by
18 April 2012

by Shiranikha Herbert Legal Correspondent

Gothic gateway: the main entrance to West Norwood Cemetery, in London

Gothic gateway: the main entrance to West Norwood Cemetery, in London

IF A faculty for exhumation were sought solely for remains to be re­buried deeper in the same grave, that represented the efficient use of burial space, and was to be encouraged, and the normal presumption against ex­humation save in exceptional cir­cum­stances did not apply, Chan­cellor Philip Petchey said in the Consistory Court of the diocese of Southwark.

The petitioner, Allan James Jenkins, sought a faculty to exhume the remains of his mother, Marjorie Helena Jenkins, who died in January 2010. She was buried in the con­secrated part of West Norwood Cemetery, in a grave where there had been three previous burials, in 1939, 1949, and 1959, of Mrs Jenkins’s parents and her aunt.

Cemetery records showed that the first burial was at a depth of 11 feet, the second at a depth of ten feet, and the third at a depth of nine feet. Cemetery records also showed that where an initial burial had been at 11 feet, it had been possible to accom­modate five burials in a grave. The fourth and fifth burials would be at depths of eight feet and seven feet.

The practice at West Norwood Cemetery, however, which had in­itially been a private cemetery but had now been acquired by the London Borough of Lambeth, was for the fourth burial to be at a depth of five feet. In accordance with that prac­tice, Mrs Jenkins’s grave was dug to a depth of five feet.

Consequently, a fifth burial would be possible only if a bricked chamber were constructed on top of the existing interments, although that would preclude the interment of any cremated re­mains within the grave. When his time came, Mr Jenkins wished his remains to be buried in the grave of his mother, his grandparents, and his great-aunt. His wife wished her cremated re­mains to be interred within the same grave.

Mr Jenkins raised the question of the depth of the burial with the cemetery authorities at his mother’s graveside, before her burial, but by then it was too late to do anything. He sought a faculty for the exhuma­tion of his mother’s remains, and for them to be reburied within the same grave at a greater depth. That would enable further burials there without the need for a bricked chamber, and would also enable ashes to be in­terred there.

In 2002, in a case concerning Blagdon Cemetery, the Court of Arches stressed that permanence was the norm of Christian burial, and that permission for exhumation should be granted only excep­tion-ally. The Chancellor said that rather different considerations ap­plied to a proposal which was for exhumation and reinterment in the same grave.

In recent years, there had been concern about the shortage of burial space, and it had been suggested that additional space could be made available by a practice known as “lift and deepen”: lifting the remains in a grave, and reburying them at a greater depth in order to provide additional space.

In July 2004, in response to a government consultation, the Cath­ed­rals and Church Buildings Di­vision of the Archbishops’ Council made it clear that it welcomed the practice of “lift and deepen” in respect of graves in consecrated ground, and did not suggest that the general objection to exhumation applied to it.

The Chancellor said that that represented the correct approach. Historically, churchyards were used over and over again, and to facilitate that it must have been necessary, from time to time, to lift and deepen. If remains were not moved, except to be placed deeper in the ground, that was not exhumation to which the presumption articulated in the Blag­don Cemetery case applied.

Nevertheless, the Chancellor said that respect for the dead suggested that human remains be disturbed as little as possible. A faculty was granted for the exhumation and reburial of Mrs Jenkins’s remains at a depth sufficient to permit further burial in due course.

As part of the faculty, conditional permission was also given to “deepen and lower” the other remains in­terred in the grave, if that was neces­sary to achieve the required depth. There was to be the minimum dis­turbance to those remains consistent with the object of achieving suf­ficient depth.

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Forthcoming Events

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)