Exploring Beeston's Churchyard -

The churchyard of St John the Baptist Church - Beeston's Parish Church - has been the final resting place of local inhabitants since very early times. Burials there are recorded in the Parish Registers since these records began in 1558 up until 1888 when the churchyard was closed for almost all burials after the opening of the present cemetery in 1886.

During the 1960's the local Council took over the responsibility of maintaining the churchyard and repositioned the memorial stones around the perimeter, alongside the north-east side of the church and on the south-west side of the chancel. Today, as can be seen above, the area provides a pleasant oasis within the bustle of the town centre. It also has much of interest for those who take the time to look.

These pages include details for all surviving memorials the earliest of which is dated 1711. Most include a recent photograph with those that are missing expected to be added during 2006. These images are deliberately fairly large so they are suitable for inclusion in personal family histories (Use for commercial purposes or re-publishing is explicitly prohibited).

Each memorial has an attempted link to the Burial Register transcription. Currently, only the first name on the memorial is so linked and as the transcription is not yet complete, not all related register entries will be available. As the links are to the nearest year, it may be necessary to scroll slightly to see the related entry. Memorials may remember persons who were not actually buried in the churchyard; in this case, no Register entry will normally exist. The "More Info" links provide access to a growing number of notes on many of the individuals and their families.

Start exploring by selecting a name from the list below.