Inkpen graveyard maps and burial records

St. Michael's graveyard surrounds the church and is the first of three burial sites to be put on the village website.

Whilst the original aim was to record just the grave inscriptions belonging to St.Michael's, the project was widened to include those in the small graveyard adjacent to the former Methodist Chapel in Post Office Road (now a private residence). It is hoped this will give additional assistance to those wishing to trace family memorials or histories involving Inkpen.

The records are presented in three documents, one for each graveyard. Those able to visit St. Michael's church to locate graves will find maps of the three locations (together with those records in printed form) which will aid location of particular graves.

Our graveyards can be very tranquil places but time, weather, vegetation, chemicals, type of masonry, earth movement and humans (intentionally or not) all take their toll, some headstones faring better than others.

Gravestones can provide such information as names,relationships, occupations, causes of death, place of abode,ages, lifespans and local stonemasons. Some have intricate decorations, others are more simple in wording and style so it is important that this part of our local heritage is recorded before the information or even the stones themselves disappear for ever. With the recent interest in researching family history they provide a tangible link with the past.

We have aimed to provide a written record of as much information as possible as it stood at that moment in time. The headstones, foot stones and surrounds have been treated with care to avoid any further damage and all resting places treated with respect. We were aware that there are numerous unmarked graves and even more that surround the church and are barely visible. At present, Spring 2012, both the new graveyard and the Methodist sites have been recorded and are being prepared to put on the village website.

The maps are for identification purposes only and is not as accurate as a formal survey but we have done our best.
The burial index where mentioned for St. Michael's churchyard, is the Berkshire Burial Index (St. Michael's Inkpen), as published by the Berkshire Family History Society, and has been of great help. If used to add text where it is unclear this has been attributed.

The table below contains the pdf files of the grave details followed by the corresponding map. To view these, just click on the item in the table. You will require a pdf reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. These are freely available from the internet.