Plumtree
St Mary

Churchyard

The churchyard has an area of 6500 sq. metres. It surrounds the church on all four sides and contains several trees, with old chestnuts and limes around the periphery. It is bounded by Old Melton Road to the north and Church Hill to the west. The churchyard was extended eaastwards in 1925. A ha-ha to the south separates the churchyard from the grounds of the Old Rectory. Some space (only about 5% of the whole) remains for further burials.

The earliest dated memorial in the graveyard is from 1705, and about 65% of the memorials were erected over 100 years ago. The older gravestones are mostly of slate; the rough-backed ones Swithland slate and the smoother ones Welsh slate.

Monuments of particular interest are those in memory of:

General Hopkinson (also commemorated in one of the windows)

Revd. William Burnside

The Pritchet headstone

Richard Pritchet, founder of the Pritchet Trust, a charity to give loaves to 12 poor residents of Plumtree, who died on 21 March 1760 aged 83

Reuben George Brooke, son of James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, lost at sea in May 1874 at the age of 40, and his son Stewart, who died on 12 October 1870 aged 2 years and 4 months

40465 Private Thomas Mitchell, Notts and Derby Regiment, died 1 November 1918, whose grave used to be maintained by the War Graves Commission

Henry Lewis Noel, 3rd son of Charles Noel Earl of Gainsborough, died at Lamcote House 7 June 1893

Garden of Rest

A Garden of Rest was made in 1996 against the south wall which divides the churchyard from the garden of the Old Rectory. A plaque on the wall is inscribed

A GARDEN OF REST

This plaque was given in memory of Wilfred Giles Reader of this Parish 1962-1989

Two commemorative oak seats stand in the garden of rest and there are three further seats in the churchyard.

Burial Registers

Burial Registers kept in the church cover the dates 28 February 1895 to 31 December 1992 and January 1993 to date. Registers dating back to 1558 are kept in the Nottinghamshire Archives.

The church has produced detailed plans of the burials in the churchyard and also a list of known interments from 1705 to 2020. The documents can be downloaded from the church website.