Churchyard permission ?

[jess5athome]

Hi, I have looked for an answer on the topics in rootschat and cannot find one, please forgive me if I have missed it.
The question I would like answered is do I need permission to walk around a churchyard in my search for old graves, I would like to have a look around the churchyard in Snaith and the churchyard and "old" cemetery in Thorne, both in Yorkshire.
Many thanks,
jess5athome 

[GrahamSimons]

No, you don't need permission. A handful are "closed" on "safety" reasons of tottering headstones.

I would suggest you take it a bit further, have a good wander round the church, too. You may find all sorts of interesting things - memorial plaques and stained glass, war memorials, lists of churchwardens, and to my joy in one church I visited recently, a map of the churchyard identifying the graves! You may also find typescript lists of baptisms, marriages and burials. And just soak up the place - this is where those great milestone events of people's lives were celebrated.

Worth trying to find details on the web first - sadly many churches are kept locked and if you want to visit inside the church, you may need to make arrangements to borrow the key: this is even more likely with churches that are barely used. Sometimes you'll need to go to the vicarage, sometimes the corner shop, sometimes the churchwarden: and a phone call in advance will help!

[jess5athome]

Hi, many thanks for your advice, I understand what you mean by "safety" reasons, when I recently had a quick look for a headstone in Snaith churchyard there was one or two dodgy looking stones, (also a couple of strange looks from locals, hence my question about permission).
The "old" cemetery at Thorne has not been in use for a great number of years but is in quite good condition regarding access to headstones and is now certainly my next port of call as it is only a couple of miles down the road from me.
Many thanks again for your help,
jess5athome

[gordon5]

As a former churchwarden, I echo what grahamsimons said. Sadly, we are one of the churches that is currently kept locked as we have some irreplaceable brasses and there are those in the area who will steal them for scrap We are always glad to open up for visitors given some notice and take great pleasure in showing off the brasses we are custodians of, as well as talking about the history of our wonderful church and showing off the finds from when we had our drains replaced under the watchful eye of a local archaeologist (quite a few tiny coffin handles, a civil war (probably) musket ball, assorted other metalwork and so on).

All our graves were moved to the sides of the churchyard but have been recorded and the records shared on findagrave. Always worth a look!!