About Our Churchyard

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Safety Notice

Uneven ground:
Please take great care when walking in the churchyard, particularly if you go off the laid footpaths, as much of the ground is uneven.

Information About Graves and Cremation Memorials

Burial records are available for inspection in the vestry (by appointment) from the 1750s onwards, though the earliest records are held elsewhere for security. The oldest graves are in the front of the church and then by the path leading round to the right of the main church door and up to the first intersection.

The newest graves are sited near the kissing gate in the far right hand corner at the back of church. There are about 2500 graves, not all with headstones, nor are all headstones readable!

The memorial plaques for cremations, against the seaward side behind the church, has 860 memorial plaques dating from the 1970s onwards, with more modern ones, yet to be mapped, against the far wall and to the right of the kissing gate. There is no more room for new graves, and only limited spaces for memorial plaques due to rock just underneath the grass layer. Sometimes recent ashes are buried in family graves.

In recent months Helen has been mapping the ashes bank and we plan to bring you a searchable map of the interments in the churchyard in due course. The idea of this is that you should be able to use this to pinpoint the resting place of a loved one or an ancestor to within a few metres prior to your visit. As you can probably imagine, converting written records, some of which date back hundreds of years, cross checking them to actual locations and finally converting this information into electronic format is a mammoth task so please bear with us whilst we attempt to bring all of this new feature to you.

The rules for this are laid out on the Diocese of Bath And Wells website.

St Andrew’s Churchyard has been closed to new burials for many years now, but we have enquiries from many people who are looking for family members so that they can enter details into their family tree.

Should you want to find out about a member of your family then please contact the church office.

Commonwealth War Graves

For information about Commonwealth War Graves in our churchyard, see our separate page on this.

Hello and welcome to our church. If you are a new visitor, we have a page for you to get to know us and learn more about planning a visit.
Click here to see more.

Visitors click here.

Planning your Visit

A Warm Welcome

The following information is specifically for those planning a visit, so that you know beforehand what to expect on a Sunday morning.

Where and When

We meet in St Andrew's Church (details here) for our Sunday services starting at 10:00 am. For more details on our schedule of services, check here.

Accessibility: There is wheelchair access to both the Church and the Church Centre. We have two designated accessible parking spaces on our private access road close to the church building, and one in the car park by the Church Centre. We have a sound loop in the church. Please sit in a pew in the main body of the church (not in the South Aisle by the entrance), behind the entrance gangway, where there are signs in front of the pews with the loop system logo, in order to take advantage of this facility. Please let one of the Welcome Team know on your arrival and they will guide you. There are no toilets in the church building. The nearest toilets are available in the Church Centre, including an accessible toilet.

Modern layout of church - hear

Our Sunday Service

The service begins at 10am with a warm welcome from one of our team, and usually with notices if applicable. We use a variety of modern liturgy and sung worship which ranges from traditional hymns to modern worship songs. We include readings from the Bible and a sermon which aims to explain the scriptures and to apply them to our lives. Some of our readings and sermons follow the Church of England lexionary, and some form part of themed sermon series. The length of the service is usually about one hour.

Church Full 2

After the service, we serve refreshments in the St Andrew's Church Centre. It is a great way to get to know one another. All refreshments are free.

What about children?

Our children's activities take place at other times than the main church service (see here). However, we love children coming to our church services with their parents, and throughout the service we have a range of children's activities available in the St Thomas Chapel, for use under parental supervision. You can still hear what's going on in the main service from there, and be assured - we really don't mind the sound of children enjoying themselves!

Children

Getting Connected

Home Groups

While Sundays are a great way to meet new people, it is often in smaller gatherings that you can really get to know someone. Being part of one of our home groups allows you to make new friends, share together and support each other. We have a variety of groups that meet throughout the week, some afternoons and some evenings. Check out Home Groups and see if there’s one that you could join, or we can put you in touch with a small group leader who will be more than happy to invite you along to their group.

Serving and Volunteering

If you want to get involved in the life of the church and help us make Sundays run smoothly, you can sign up to serve on a team.

Get in touch with us to plan your visit

If you would like to come and visit the church beforehand you are more than welcome! The church building is open for visitors most days from approximately 10 am to 4 pm. If you have questions beforehand, please let us know below.

Name:

Telephone:

Email Address:
Comments / Questions or anything you would like to say?

Next, we will contact you by email to say hello and help arrange anything necessary for your visit.

We hope that whoever you are, you will feel truly at home at our church.