The petitioners wished to mark the presence of a barrel vault which had been discovered under the floor of this Grade 1-listed church during re-ordering works, by a cross incised in the floor and a stone memorial tablet nearby. The cross would not affect the character of the church as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The petitioners’ wish to mark the vault and to develop heritage engagement were sufficiently good reasons to displace the presumption against change. A faculty would issue for the incised cross, subject to the details of the incised cross being agreed by the DAC and, because of the risk arising from introducing an unevenness into the floor, by the church's insurers.
The DAC had not recommended the proposal for a stone tablet. The proposed memorial sought to commemorate the now-unknown parishioners interred in the vault and to explain the presence of the incised cross. As to the first purpose, the court considered the Court of Arches authority of re St Margaret's, Eartham [1981] 1 WLR 1129, which emphasised that memorials in churches were a special privilege reserved for very exceptional cases. There were no parallels between this case and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; here, the identities of those interred had simply been lost. This was no different from the remains of countless others interred in and around our churches. As to the second purpose, it was not the role of permanent stone memorials to provide heritage engagement. In any event, the petitioners already intended to create interpretational material for display in the church. This part of the petition was dismissed. [DW]
