noun
definition
A patch of land adjoining a church, often used as a graveyard.
Examples of churchyards in a Sentence
Fine oaks and beeches are numerous, and yew trees of great size and age are seen in some Kentish churchyards, as at Stansted, while the fine oak at Headcorn is also famous.
Obviously the churchyards surrounding the older and more important parish churches - such as Greyfriars', St Cuthbert's and the Canongate, contain the greatest number of memorials of the illustrious dead.
The outlying parts of the county to east, south and north are not lacking in open spaces, but there is an extensive inner area where at most only small gardens and squares break the continuity of buildings, and where in some cases old churchyards serve as public grounds.
A like result has been produced when, in response to Ultramontane agitation, interdicts have been placed on churchyards in which non-Catholics have found their last resting-place.
Besides the full functions of the presbyterate, or priesthood, bishops have the sole right (I) to confer holy orders, (2) to administer confirmation, (3) to prepare the holy oil, or chrism, (4) to consecrate sacred places or utensils (churches, churchyards, altars, &c.), (5) to give the benediction to abbots and abbesses, (6) to anoint kings.
The act of 1894, as we have seen, not only established the Local Government Board, consisting of the secretary for Scotland, the solicitor-general, the under-secretary and three appointed members - a vice-president, a lawyer and a medical officer of public health - but also replaced the parochial boards by parish councils, empowered to deal among other things with poor relief, lunacy, vaccination, libraries, baths, recreation grounds, disused churchyards, rights of way, parochial endowments, and the formation of special lighting and scavenging districts.
They have in a similar manner been relieved of their jurisdiction in testamentary matters, and in matters of defamation and of brawling in churches; and the only jurisdiction which they continue to exercise over the general laity is with regard to their use of the churches and churchyards.
The churchwardens, who are representative officers of the parishes, are also executive officers of the bishops in all matters touching the decency and order of the churches and of the churchyards, and they are responsible to the bishops for the due discharge of their duties; but the abolition of church rates has relieved the churchwardens of the most onerous part of their duties, which was connected with the stewardship of the church funds of their parishes.
These acts contain provisions whereby burials may be prohibited in urban districts, and Burial churchyards or burial grounds already existing may be Acts.
West Lindsey District Council have a responsibility to maintain some 16 closed churchyards.
Burial records for these closed churchyards are also the responsibility of the churches.
The cemetery can therefore be considered characteristic of the mixed burial of known medieval churchyards.
To take a local example the Essex Society for Family History has transcribed the monumental inscriptions from many churchyards including ours.
Probably the most outstanding example is the growing of yew trees in the churchyards to supply the wood for making the longbows.
Churchyards are often the only place where traditional meadow plants such as ladies ' bedstraw and meadow saxifrage can still flourish.
This is common to many churchyards because most people took exception to being buried on the sunless north side.
Processions, with singing of the litany or of hymns, appear also to have been always usual on such occasions as the consecration of churches and churchyards and the solemn reception of a visiting bishop. Under the influence of the Catholic revival, associated with the Oxford Tractarians, processions have become increasingly popular in the English Church, pre-Reformation usages having in some churches been revived without any legal sanction.