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Lottery cash plea to save cemetery
A BID is being made for £250,000 Lottery cash to save St John’s Church Hampstead’s graveyard.
The Church Row cemetery, where English landscape painter John Constable is buried, is on English Heritage’s At Risk register.
Camden Council has pledged to spend £250,000 on the churchyard, and hopes the Lottery Fund will match that figure. The cash will be spent on repairs to gravestones and paths, and on cleaning up areas of the overgrown churchyard, which is more than 1,000 years old.
The church plans to develop a website with a guided tour which visitors can download onto iPods to guide them round the churchyard’s many interesting graves.
Architect Richard Hill, a conservation specialist commissioned by the church to survey the graveyard, said: “The churchyard is in a very poor state of repair and we must save some important monuments.
“We want to keep its character. The paths in the graveyard are in a bad way but we have to make sure we strike a balance between making it safe and securing its future without losing its charm.”
Mr Hill added: “The cemetery is more overgrown than it has ever been. One part of the plans we have submitted is to free up some of the original views by cutting back and pruning some of the undergrowth.”
Even this requires care, as the churchyard is home to rare grasses and is a haven for wildlife. Mr Hill said: “We need to continue to encourage plants and wildlife. It is all part of the place’s charm.”
The church is also in need of repairs. The boiler heating the building is on its last legs, and a replacement will cost £25,000. Church sacristan Judy East added: “It is nearly 20 years old and it’s time for a new one.” |
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