The Christchurch Memorial Inscriptions have been copied from a draft text
document which has travelled through many computers and formats before it
reached us. I've cleaned up the document in order that the contents can be
easily read and then put it into a PDF document which is available.

As the details are not in a database format, you are not able to search and
bring up a list of entries by surname. If anybody has the time and would like to
extract the details into a spreadsheet, like we do with the Parish Records, then
please contact me.

Thanks to Valerie Leonard and Sue Merizon who kindly extract all the details of
the inscriptions from a document into a spreadsheet we now have a searchable
database of all the people whose names appear on these inscriptions.

Christchurch Memorial Inscriptions
http://forest-of-dean.net/joomla/christchurch-mi-search

I'd like to extend a big thank you to Valerie and Sue for their hard work in making this list much easier to use! Also, special thanks to FoDFH lister Julie H., who supplied the list in the first place!

I would caution anyone who is intending on going to the graveyard and hoping to use the row letters and numbers. It's not all that easy to do!! When I was there last March, I thought I was well prepared with a burial plot on graph paper. The graves aren't exactly where you think they should be... I told David, maybe the people who originally listed the cemetery stopped at The Globe, first...bless their hearts! Also Beware of Sink Holes!

Seriously, those who took the time, orginally, to list the graves deserve my thanks, also. I found my g-g-grandparents and grand aunts and grand uncle! For that, I'm truely grateful!

Sadly, the gravestones listed as leaning against the church wall are now gone! The stones of my Stephens ancestors were there in 1997, but were missing in 2007.

The stones of my Stephens ancestors were there in 1997, but were missing in 2007.

Just after seeing my original post above regarding the Inscriptions, Mike
Gwilliam sent us another document he had with details of the headstones that
were stacked against the wall. Above the descriptions was the following:

About 40 years ago a number of broken headstones were moved and stacked against
the school wall. In 1998 the Church Council agreed that Canon Brian Carne should
remove them and reuse as paving at Whitehouse, English Bicknor.

The following descriptions and inscriptions were noted before they were laid
face-down. Letters in square brackets are conjectural; a question mark indicates
that the reading is unclear.

All the names, dates and ages need to be checked with the burial register which
is in Gloucestershire Record Office, such checking will indicate which of the
Inscriptions commemorate persons who were not buried in the churchyard. All but
one are local stone.

WHAT? I don't believe it!!!

Neither do I.

I don't wish to ever pass judgment on others, but is seems to me that the stones were not the church council's property and instead, some effort should have been made to preserve these stones in a more appropriate way. They were not placed to mark someone's final resting place in order to be used to save the cost of acquiring paving stones . . . and I am surprised that any group of individuals could have come to such a decision which was, at best, disrespectful of the dead, and their families.

The news article states the headstones were removed in 1998. When I was at Christchurch, in July 1997, the headstones were neatly displayed against the church wall and of NO apparent danger to anyone! Everytime I think of this incident I fume! In my country we call this vandalism!

Best wishes to all for a happy and healthy New Year!
Cynthia Hawkins Wood

We have been to this graveyard today and we searched and searched for my cousin's 3 x great grandparents in the Voice family and could not find their graves along the West Wall. It also looked as if old graves have been used to put new people in with new headstones.
We were very perplexed over why we could not find them and now we know why.
How dare the Church Council use the headstones for paving stones. As someone in this thread said it is not their business to get rid of the headstones. They should have been left propped up against the wall.
My cousin has come all the way from New Zealand to do family history research into her Voice or Voyce family who came from all over the Forest of Dean, this is going to be very upsetting for her when I tell her in the morning.

I think she will want to find the address of the Church Council and write to them.

What a disgrace.

In addition to my message above. We travelled to English Bicknor and spoke to someone there who said the missing gravestones were used at one time to prop up a mine shaft!!! and then they went to a house in English Bicknor, the person could not recollect which house but he has our details and he is going to try and find out which house.

Many thanks for this web site I have tried to trace my great grandparents,knowing that they were buried in christchurch ,only to discover that they have had their headstones removed and the ground reused why?? There is mention of a list of the inscriptions off the stones [now housed at whitehouse,English Bicknor] how may i have site of this list?At least it would be nice to know what they said.Kind regards

The Memorial Inscriptions are in a searchable database on this website. Go to:
http://forest-of-dean.net/joomla/christchurch-mi-search

Mike