The Grave Yards of Blisworth

The four grave yards in Blisworth have received much more attention in recent years, in terms of upkeep and the preservation of wildlife, and this has been encouraged by the Northamptonshire Wild Life Trust. Recent work has been organised by the Blisworth Parish Plan Progress Team, especially in regard to the Cemetery and details are given below.

A Brief Note on Nomenclature  The grave yards of Blisworth are listed in their order of creation in the 1900 map above. The map has some interesting warps for which apologies are offered.  We refer to the areas, highlighted in blue here, as "yards for graves" because that is consistent with tradition and because the term 'yard' is still in use for space around a building in the UK (churches, school - play area, etc.) and in the USA and Australia (the garden and drive space around a residence).  The Baptist Church was obliged to increase space for graves c1950 and that is why Old and New are incorporated in the names. The Cemetery has been named as such since its inception and up to around 1990 (indeed, right up to the present in the SNC mapping that is based on the Ordnance Survey). However, in some of the literature that deals with its upkeep and improvement it has been termed "the old grave yard, the old church yard or the closed grave yard".  It is hoped that such inconsistency does not continue.

A    The Church Yard  Obviously, on account of its age, there are to be found some of the oldest graves here. Notable in this are the chest tombs (box-graves) for the Plowman, the Tibbes and the Brafield family. These chest tombs are Grade II listed by EH. The inscriptions have all but gone but they were recorded by the historian Bridges in circa 1870 from notes acquired for him in 1718 - you could read in full in the Bridges History (Blisworth section) at the N.R.O.  Both the Brafield and the Plowman family are thought to be known in the area before 1650 but, on that date (approximately) these families were sold land that had been appropriated from the King by Cromwell. A few other individuals, including Tibbes, became freeholders at that time. On the restoration of the land to royal ownership, with a Duke of Grafton as the honoured owner, these former freeholders were granted tenure at favourable terms and became, if they were not already, the most influential farming families in the village.  The chest tombs (box-graves) are all that is left - even some graves for these families under the Chancel were tiled over in the Victorian tidying up in around 1855.  No one has attempted to research what is left - see George Freeston's Church Notes via the search box on the home page.  The church yard is now the current grave yard for new burials, re-established as such in about 1998 by the Rev. J. Cortie.

There is no layout diagram for the Church Yard.

B    Baptist Old Graveyard  In 1825 a small Baptist Chapel was built with a small parcel of land which extended down a steep field to what was the mill-stream.  It became the Baptist grave yard and includes many names from Victorian Blisworth. The Baptist faith was followed by a majority of the working class and some of their 'masters' (ie. business owners etc) whereas, certainly in the Victorian era, the Anglican faith was followed more by merchants and the 'landed' and the gentry.  Because of dangerous ground subsidence this grave yard was closed to the public in 2011.

The Link to the Layout Diagram

C    The Cemetery  The Anglican church yard was thought to be too crowded and a cemetery extension was created on land purchased from the Duke of Grafton in 1863-4.  The Cemetery was in use until approximately 1965.  It had become distressingly over-grown with brush and weeds since then and a number of volunteer clearance parties have been motivated in the last 50 years. Latest in these is the currently active group, the Parish Plan Progress Team, 2010 - et seq. They have received considerable encouragement by the Northamptonshire Wild-Life Trust over the improvements, that have led to a profusion in the Cemetery of spring flowers this year.  The Parish Plan group are applying again for a "Silver Award" based on the village's management of all four grave yards, particularly the Cemetery, in the next year having won the award for last year.  An account of this work is linked here.

The Link to the Layout Diagram (currently being overhauled).

D    Baptist New Graveyard  The Link to the Layout Diagram