Hi,
To the best of my knowledge, there is no detailed and available plan of St Laurence's Churchyard. As a local with a lot of ancestors buried there, I am in there quite often and it is not the easiest of places to locate a grave but it is possible with only a bit of effort.
In short, it is split into 'NG' and 'OG' for 'New' and 'Old'. So, OGA means 'Old Section A', and NG means 'New Section'. The Old run A-F. There is only one NG section.
The first set of numbers means the row and the second set mean the place within that row.
So, OGA/5/6 means Section A of the Old part of the Churchyard, Row 5 and grave number 6.
You can see from the attached illustration of Section A that the rows run from East to West and the graves run South to North.
If you are after details on a lot of graves, you can buy the CD of the Graveyard Survey from 1982 from the Cheshire Family History Society. This is an impressive piece of work and far exceeded my expectations. If every churchyard was all well-recorded as St Laurence's has been I would be delighted. Add to that the fact that all the Parish Registers were fully transcribed and published a century ago (and are freely available at
www.archive.org) and it is fair to say that researching St Laurence's is a doddle compared to almost anywhere else I know.
Meanwhile, on the condition of the churchyard itself. It varies throughout the year. I have spoken with Parishioners and one of the Church Wardens about this and apparently it is the Council's responsibility. I think this may be more common than many people realise. That said, I have seen it just after it has been mowed and it then looks very well-maintained. I suspect it it is the infrequency of that maintenance that makes it look overgrown at times.
Finally, if you have a couple of requests for graves at St Laurence's, post them on
www.findagrave.com I can't promise to do them straight away but I will endeavour to do them in due course. I will also add the relevant extract from the Graveyard Survey from 1982 so you will know exactly what the inscriptions are.
Regards
Simon