Finningley Holy Trinity & St Oswald

Churchyard

Lych gate at the east entrance	The west side of the churchyard
Grave marker to Thomas Field who died aged 3 in 1779	The war graves plot in the churchyard extension

The churchyard is trapezoidal in shape and covers an area of 0.4 ha. The church is offset towards the north-east side.

In 1892 the churchyard was enlarged by the addition of a portion of the glebe, presented by the Rev. N. B. Whitby, who was rector from 1887 to 1904.

Further west is the modern graveyard, created in the late 1930s, which is 0.5 ha in extent. During the early part of the Second World War a section of the graveyard was set aside for Royal Air Force burials and the plot, containing 44 burials, has been acquired by the Commonwealth Graves Commission.

There are burials on all sides of the church, although there are very few grave markers to the north of the building.

The boundaries are a mixture of brick wall, hedges and mature trees. A lych gate on the eastern boundary forms the main entrance to the churchyard. It was erected by the Rev N. B. Whitby as a memorial to his mother.

Until the year 1847 there was a schoolroom in the south-western corner of the churchyard. The Rev. G. H. Woodhouse observed that 'the School was very injurious to the churchyard, as the children made it a play ground, and the inscriptions on the tombstones of some most influential parishioners were quite obliterated, and some headstones broken.' Woodhouse was instrumental in having the school demolished and restoring the churchyard to its 'ancient boundaries'.