Clearance of headstones at Upwell Baptist Church

[Ann.McClean]

I was in the Fens visiting my parents last week, and on Thursday afternoon, I went to the Baptist Chapel at Upwell as my father hold told me that the the builders had moved in and had started clearing the headstones - with a bulldozer.
It was a horrendous sight - not one of the old headstones
is left standing; they are now just a heap of rubble behind the chapel.

I took many photographs and have now put a selection up on my website.

The Baptist authorities apparently didn't put any covenants relating to care of the headstones into the Deed of Sale - all was kept very
quiet, despite one or 2 very small notices in the local papers - until the diggers moved in last week.

The developer [a Mr. Udensi] says he is doing nothing wrong [!] but surely the headstones should have been moved to another site? I have lost 3-4 generations worth of RUSSELL, FORTH, SCOTT & CAWTHORN history and am not best pleased - and don't know what to do, etc.

[Guy Etchells]

Dependant one what the notices said and if the gravestones were recorded prior to their destruction or not the developer could be in breach of the law.

The relevant part is contained in the Schedule.
Cheers
Guy

[Guy Etchells]

PS It is illegal to build on a site that contains human remains.
Cheers
Guy

[Ann.McClean]

In Jan. 2004, the Fenland FHS became aware that the chapel was up for sale, and applied for, and were given, permission to record the Memorial Inscriptions.

Then, in March this year the following Public Notice appeared in the Fenland Citizen (Wed. March 15th 2005):

"THE OLD BAPTIST CHURCH
159 SCHOOL ROAD UPWELL, WISBECH, CAMBS PE14 6NS

The church is soon to be turned into a dwelling. It is proposed to make
alterations to the grave yard including re-locating or removing many
headstones. ANyone wishing to know more details should write to:-

Mark Prior
Milkinghill House
Porter's Yard
Chatteris
Cambs PE16 6NS

Any comments on the proposal must be made before 11th May 2005"

I have still to receive a reply to my letter asking where the headstones would be re-located to.

Another notice appeared again in the Fenland Citizen [not the main newspaper for the Wisbech district, I might add, but is the freebie one]
in late June - for this I refer you to the Fenland FHS website. There is a rather telling piece about the developer, Mr Udensi on the website front page.

Because the notices were in the Citizen rather than the Wisbech Standard, the main local paper, not a lot of people knew what was happening until the diggers moved in last week - there are a lot of very unhappy and upset people in the Upwell district as many have a relative buried in this graveyard.

Ann.

[Copper]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention Ann. I am upset about this and as far as I know I don't have any ancestors buried there. Most of mine are in Chatteris. I can't understand why headstones need to be destroyed. I dread to think what the developer plans to do with the burial ground itself.

[jeeb]

Sadly this is an age old problem and I am not sure of how the law covers this. As a once worker and compiler of monumental inscriptions in Worcestershire, it was common to find gravestones piled against walls or used to make steps, paths and the like. If these gravestones had become unreadable or unsafe then there is an argument in favour of their removal. In many cases though the stones were still quite legible but had been smashed to make crazy paving paths or half buried in cement or concrete to form path edges. There is such a path in Halesowen churchyard where infuriatingly the age of an ancestor who died in 1765 is hidden for ever.
Jeremy

[Coneyman]

I think this is truly disgusting, surely the distant families of these people buried in the Churchyard have paid for these headstones, so therefore it is robbery of the worst kind.
I have family, my G/Grandmother, from Wisbeach, the Dunhams, altho i know where she is buried in London, but her ancestors must be there somewhere, so when i get round to researching them i am gonna have trouble if they were in that Churchyard. They call that progress NOT.

[Ann.McClean]

And this is what the chapel looks like now: go to harrison murray property. No mention at all of the 185+ graves under the garden.

Regards, Ann

[Coneyman]

They wont have to, and u'll all probably think i'm potty, but if u enlarge & look at Pic. 5 on the righthand index, u can see loads of 'orbs' known in the spiritual world as Spirits (I am into that), they will let whoever buys it know they are there, poor things.
Apart from that it's a very cold looking place dont u think.
Margaret.

[Ann.McClean]

From the Upwell Message Board: Baptist Church. Posted on July 21, 2006 at 23:16:23 by Concerned Resident

"If anyone thought the contoversial subject of the Upwell Baptist Church had been buried (excuse the pun) then they were wrong. Remember the public notice that the owner/developer placed in the paper stating that Mr & Mrs Melton could have access to thier relatives grave, and that the War grave could remain ? Well, having stopped the proposed exhumation of PO 'Tim' Hargraves by the War Graves Commission, and saying that the headstone could be returned, the owner is now going back on his word. Now that he has the property for sale he is preventing the War Graves Commission from replacing the headstone. So PO Hargraves now rests in and unmarked plot. It's such a shame that such a young man who gave his life in defending this country is now the subject of a thoughtless, greedy property developer. Surely a lovely clean white headstone is not going to be detrimental to selling this Baptist Church, especially with so much significance attatched. I gather the developer is not divulging the fact that the entire front and sides of the property is a burial ground anyway, so one headstone doesn't really matter.... does it ?"

Ann