St Mary's Church, Ealing - burials

[elmtree]

Hi

This is my first posting to the Forum.

I recently tracked down a monumental inscription record which showed that six of my ancestors, from Old Brentford, (surname "Round") are buried in a tomb at St Mary's, Ealing. I recently visited the church and the overgrown and neglected churchyard, but could find no trace of the family tomb. It occurred to me that the burial area looks far too small to accommodate all the burials which must have taken place at St Mary's in bygone days! The church covered the "catchment area" of both Ealing and Old Brentford, and there cannot be more than a few dozen headstones in the churchyard.

My question is - does anyone know whether the churchyard at St Mary's was once larger than it is now, and whether some graves/tombstones/tombs etc were moved or destroyed? Or whether people in the St Mary's "catchment area" were buried somewhere other than in the churchyard in the early 19th century, and if so, where? I did ask both the vicar and the Ealing Local Studies library, but neither were able to help me.

( My six ancestors died between 1825 and 1839, so they cannot be buried in South Ealing Cemetery, which I believe only opened in 1861 or thereabouts).

I'd be very grateful for any help anyone can give me. Thank you.

Gavin

[Tom-M]

Hi Gavin.

I live local to St Marys old church.

On your behalf, I spoke to the local archivist about the churchyard, He seems to think that nothing has changed regarding the size of graveyard.

He said that he would do some research and come back to me with informationthat he finds.

I hope this will be of help to you, if there is anything else that you might need just ask.

Tom.

[PamG]

When I was in London a few years ago, I looked for my ggrandmother's grave in Ladywell cemetary, but couldn't find it. So I made a couple of phone calls and was directed to the Lewisham Crematorium, who looked after the site. I made an appointment for the next day, and a gentleman from the crematorium met me in the cemetary and brought with him a grave map. We found the grave I was looking for on the map, and he led me to the right place. Then he called over a groundskeeper and asked him to clean up the weeds around the grave. I came back the next day with flowers, and it was well tended.

When I went looking for the next grave, this time in the Richmond area, I called ahead to the local crematorium. They asked me to stop in at the building by the gate, where they did a computer search on the name I had, and printed me out a map. They even told me there was an empty grave above the body! I would never have found the grave otherwise, because there was no marker.

I thought perhaps there might be a similar authority in the area you are looking at.

Regards,

Pam
Canada