Two Keswick churches have been thrown a temporary one-off cash boost to help maintain their graveyards.
Members of Keswick Town Council unanimously agreed to grant St John’s and Crosthwaite £2,000 each from general reserves towards the £9,000 it costs each church to keep its grounds in order. The money will be paid for a year and then reviewed.
There were a number of complaints from parishioners over the summer about the state of St John’s churchyard with areas allowed to grow wild. At a public meeting in September, nurse Amanda Miller said she and her daughter had fallen in the churchyard while visiting a family grave because the grass was more than four feet high. She accused the church of not giving families dignity in death.
In July, The Keswick Reminder had also reported unrest about the state of the churchyard. Isobel Hamer told the paper she had been tending her parents’ grave for nearly 30 years, and during that time it had been a case of refreshing the flowers and pulling up a few stray weeds.
But, she said, this year parts of the churchyard at St John’s had been allowed to grow wild, with the church claiming that the decision to stop cutting the grass was to save both money and the environment.
Councillors were told that each church received an income of £4,500 from burial fees and that cutting the grass cost £9,000 per year, leaving a £4,500 shortfall. St John’s covers this using a legacy of sale of land for The Hopes and Crosthwaite uses a legacy given by a former member of the congregation. But in each case, the legacies were decreasing.
Cllr Allan Daniels said that the state of the churchyard at St John’s had created quite a bit of controversy in the town and the situation had been exacerbated by Covid-19.
“I have been at meetings where people have become very emotional,” he said. “The churchyard is an asset to Keswick as you cannot go through it without seeing people walking their dogs and having their lunch overlooking the beautiful surroundings.”
Both the Rev Charles Hope, of St John’s, and the Rev Andy Murphie, of Crosthwaite, attended the meeting and Cllr Paul Titley asked: “Don’t you think that you have been spooked by a couple of people who don’t live here?”
But Mr Hope did admit that there were areas of the churchyard where the grass did get long and had become an eyesore. He said that in some areas the grass needed going over three times to get it cut.
Mr Hope and Mr Murphie had written a joint letter to parish councillors in which they said: “We understand that the town council has significant commitments for its funds, but we do feel that there is a case to make the request for a regular contribution to each church in their efforts to maintain our local churchyards as community assets that are for the benefit of the whole community of our town, its residents and visitors.
“The town council may care to think of sharing half of the shortfall for both of the churches making a total of £4,000 per annum shared equally.
“The town council may also think of sharing in a joint working group on churchyard management to oversee how its contribution is being used for the good of all people in the town.”
The meeting heard that the churchyard at St John’s would be full in 20 years’ time given the current death rate. Cllr Tony Lywood supported the one-off granting of money and was against making a commitment in perpetuity. This was supported by fellow councillors.
