Church of St Mary and St Gabriel
in the Totnes Mission Community
The churchyard surrounds the church and is bounded by stone wall on the north, west and east sides and by local flora and wood fencing on the south. The churchyard is on two levels – a higher level and a lower level – that are separated one from the other by a retaining stone wall that runs between the west and east boundary walls south of the church.
The higher level is the original mediaeval churchyard and, in all likelihood, is at least as old as the church itself, dating it to the 13thcentury. It may be older still since the earlier chapel (which existed to the north and east of the church within the churchyard boundaries) may have had a burial ground associated with it. The higher level is also the location of a thousand year old yew tree.
The lower level of the churchyard, adjacent to the mill pool, was originally owned by the Churchward family and was acquired and consecrated in three parts, the first part, to the south and west of the south porch, in 1938 and the second parts, to the south and east of the south porch, in 1985 and 2000. Access between the two levels is enabled by steps through the stone wall in two locations.
More detail of the history of the churchyard is available from the linked pdf file.
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The Registers provide a listing of churchyard graves which have been marked by a memorial headstone or cremation tablet, and the Plan provides the location of the listed graves. There are two Registers, one listing the graves by surname(s) in alphabetical order and the other listing the graves by number. Printed copies of the two Registers and Plan are also available for inspection at the west end of the nave.
To locate a grave, refer first to the alphabetical register to make a provisional identification of the grave number, and then refer to the numerical register to confirm the grave and its number. Reference to the plan should establish its location in the churchyard. Not all graves included in the registers have headstones or are readily legible and it may be helpful to refer to the identity of neighbouring graves. Some graves have no identifiable marking at all, save for their existence.
Grave numbers identified by the letter “A” indicate interment of ashes (usually with a memorial tablet). Many graves contain multiple occupants and some have both a burial and interment of ashes. Memorial plaques are identified by the letter “M” but, in contrast to the graves, have not been updated since the year 2000.
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