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Family History Documents and Artefacts => Graveyards and Gravestones => Topic started by: Heatherp6 on Friday 07 January 11 00:26 GMT (UK)
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Ive noticed recently that you can only purchase graves for a maximum of 75 years, so why is it when you look round really old cemetary some graves are well over 100 years old and a lot are over 200 years old,
Is this quite a new thing for buriels nowadays, only allowing you to use the grave for a set amount of time ??
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It is now quite normal to place a time limitation on the ownership of a grave. Many cemeteries became neglected and over grown, often vandalised, The local authority has an obligation to keep boundary walls and gates in repair and maintain access routes but the care including safety checks of graves rest with the Burial Rights Owner.
In many cases because the BRO is deceased or has moved away without informing the cemetery authority of a forwarding address it has become almost impossible to make future contact. Consequently where headstones and kerbs etc have been found to be unstable the local authority [often with much contraversy] lay down or dismantle the graves for H and S reasons. Therefore many cemetery owners impose a time limit [but the rights are often renewable] to help to reduce the problem of uncared for graves but in truth it is also a revenue earner.
If an existing grave has space available and assuming the original BRO or their decendants has not renewed the grant, the cemetery authorities sell on the space to another family. Unfortunately for family historians only the headstone referring to the new burial is allowed to stay and the original headstone has to be removed.
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Another reason behind this is also to encourage more people to consider cremation over interment.
When you consider how much space 1 single grave will take up and allowing for the space around and between graves, in the same plot you could easily bury at least 6 urns and their appropriate markers.
And as said before, many families have in the past paid for graves for loved ones, and several generations down the line, no-one visits these graves or keeps them neat. In some instances the person may even not be known of after a period of around 30/40 years.