Huddersfield – St. Peter’s Church (Gravestones Turned into Paving)

This is St. Peter’s Church in Huddersfield, the parish church.

Below is my moaning about how the gravestones have been used….. And I know others will think it looks lovely.

There’s not much that can be done now, but I’m not a supporter of the decision to flatten gravestones and turn them into paving. We’ve got a selection above of a baby’s gravestone made into a step, a bin shoved on a gravestone, a gravestone cut up to fit, a fallen memorial, gravestones with picnic tables on and gravestones with paint all of them. It’s not the character that I’d want from a parish church, and there’s been a religious building on this site for over 1,000 years.

And more photos. I accept they look quite beautiful in many ways, but at some stage someone had to pay a lot of money for a stone to remember their loved ones. This doesn’t feel the right way to treat them and some other churches did block attempts for their graveyards to be handled in this manner. They’re also not in the right place, so the historic link to the location of the grave is not immediately obvious, although I think there are records which might show the original burial location. At least though all of the gravestones have now been photographed, so their text won’t be lost forever.

But, just as my complaining draws to its boring end, the situation gets worse. I just consider the current situation to be unfortunate, but the church has yet to finish its master plan. The church, in its great wisdom, has decided it can turn this park area into a lovely car park. Huddersfield Civic Society said:

“Surely this goes against the council’s blueprint and the green agenda? Will it not also involve significant costs to redesignate the Traffic Regulation Order that restricts traffic in Byram Street? Surely, in light of the planned repurposing of St Peter’s garden, Kirklees Council and the applicant could work together to look for alternative parking?

Perhaps Kirklees could make available dedicated spaces in one of the nearby car parks that are little used on Sundays. After all, there already is provision at the church for temporary parking for funeral vehicles and dropping off disabled parishioners. Huddersfield Civic Society objects strongly to this plan and hopes Kirklees planners will reject it for the sake of the town’s future.”

I agree with the Civic Society.

Anyway, complaining over.