Bid to save gravestones of famous Horlick family (Announce)

by admin , Forest of Dean, Friday, April 30, 2010, 08:41 (5319 days ago) @ unknown

Reproduced from This is Gloucestershire Newspaper, Thursday, April 29, 2010

The gravestones of the Forest's famous Horlick family could be destroyed unless they can be relocated.

The Diocese of Gloucester will decide on the fate of seven headstones - including relatives of malted milk pioneers the Horlick family - which stand in the grounds of the old non-conformist chapel in Ruardean.

Reg and Robert Duberley, who own the former Congregational Union Church, want to redevelop the site - including the graveyard.

District councillor and historian Andrew Gardiner wants to save any stones that remain intact by moving them to St John the Baptist Church in Ruardean.

He said: "There are about 20-30 stones and about seven are still in reasonable condition for moving.

"I think it's important that our history isn't lost."

Andrew found out about the stones through a legal notice placed in The Forester on Christmas Eve last year. It called for any families with relatives buried at the old chapel to come forward.

No one replied to the notice and several months of research by Mr Gardiner has failed to turn up any living family members.

One of the names is that of Pastor John Horlick - a relation of the malted milk inventors William and James Horlick.

Together with parish priest the Rev Nick Bromfield, Andrew has now applied to have the headstones moved to a new part of the cemetery at St John's.

Mr Bromfield said: "We can't move the remains but we have asked if we can move the headstones in order to preserve them.

"I think it's a great idea but we have to go through a formal process with the diocese."

A decision is expected in the next few weeks but it is thought to be one of the first applications of its type in the Dean.

The non-conformists began as an off-shoot of the Anglican church and the chapel in Ruardean was built in 1798.

The chapel ceased to be a place of worship in the 1970s.

Some of the stones in the graveyard are more than 150-years-old.

Mr Bromfield said that he thought that even though the people who were buried weren't members of the Church of England they would be satisfied with the solution.

He said: "I hope that they would be happy that the gravestones will at least be kept on holy ground."

Reg Duberley who owns the Chapel site said he was supportive of any attempt to save the stones.

Many thanks to Simon, alias 'forest', for bringing this article to our attention.