THE CURRENT CRISIS over a shortage of land for burials in Bourne is a reminder that space for this most solemn ritual has always been a problem and the main reason why the town cemetery was opened 150 years ago. 

Until then the churchyard was the last resting place of those who went before, a plot of secluded land to the south of the 12th century Abbey Church, shaded by ancient chestnuts and lined with slate and granite tombstones, but containing fewer than 300 marked graves yet those who died here in past centuries are numbered in their thousands, thus leaving us with the mystery of where they were all buried. 

The churchyard was closed in 1855 because, like many others around the country, it was deemed to be full. There was no more space and some plots had been used two, three and even four times for interments with bodies stacked one upon the other. 

By the early 19th century there was some public disquiet about the use of churchyards within populated areas for so many burials because of a possible risk to public health through contamination and a Bourne clergyman, the Rev James Peggs, minister of the Baptist Church in West Street, added to the debate by challenging the practice. He wrote a leaflet which was published both in London and in Bourne, entitled A Cry from the Tombs: or Facts and Observations on the Impropriety of Burying the Dead among the Living, in which he detailed several horrific cases in which people had been stricken after coming into contact with the remains of corpses after they had been interred. 

The publication was reviewed by the Stamford Mercury in February 1841 when the newspaper reported: "We hope the time is fast approaching when the public health will no longer be injured by the interment of myriads of dead bodies amidst the busy hum of men."  

As a result of this campaign, most new cemeteries were built on land outside the town, South Road being chosen in the case of Bourne and so burials were regularised here with one body per plot as a result. But the mystery of the multiple use of graves prior to that continues and a close inspection of the parish registers reveals that the number of burials recorded over the centuries could never have been accommodated in the churchyard alone and overcrowding was evident well before the records began. 

A survey of the monumental inscriptions in the churchyard by the Lincolnshire Family History Society (Bourne branch) in 2010 reveals evidence of 276 burials and the earliest date appears to be 1710. Using the figure of 300 graves as a yardstick therefore, this means that the churchyard must have been used many times over to provide space for the departed during the nine centuries of its existence which is quite unlikely and so mass graves may have been used. 

These were a practical solution in time of disaster for any authority faced with a large number of bodies needing burial. There are many instances of this during periods of plague and epidemic, particularly during the Black Death and with frequent influenza and cholera outbreaks, when large burial pits were dug although it would need a detailed investigation to ascertain whether this actually occurred here. 

The earliest records of burials in Bourne can be traced back to the mid-16th century when there were 45 in 1562 but this figure increased steadily as the town’s population grew and during the first half of the 17th century, 2,670 burials were recorded for the years from 1601-1650. This means that the churchyard had to cope with at least 5,000 burials for each of the subsequent centuries and so between 1562 and 1855 when the churchyard closed, at least 30,000 burials would have taken place but with unrecorded deaths prior to that, and taking into account those years when no register was kept, this figure will be much higher. Cremation is not a factor because this practice was not introduced until 1902. 

These figures are borne out by the National Burials Index (NBI) which records a total of 37,624 burials in Bourne between 1754 and 1995 although just over a quarter of these were in the cemetery which opened in 1855 and so the total for the churchyard for that period will be almost 30,000. My own records go back a further two centuries to include those burials between 1562 and 1753 and so we are able to give a continuous total over five centuries of approximately 50,000. 

It is therefore apparent that the present churchyard was simply too small for the expanding population and although it may have once been much larger at some time in the past, the only evidence of this is the marooned tombstones on the south west side which indicate that those graves were replaced when the footpath was built but this would not have meant the loss of many burial plots. More land to the east of the present churchyard was offered to the church in 1846 but refused, a major factor in the decision undoubtedly being the projected opening of the cemetery in South Road. 

Evidence of the large number of burials in churchyards can be seen in many parts of England where most have an estimated 20,000 bodies under the soil and in some cases the ground has risen by several feet as a result, so giving the appearance that the church has sunk into the ground. This phenomenon also appears to be manifest here in Bourne where the churchyard has risen above the level of the church for a height of more than two feet. 

Although all burials in the town cemetery over the past 150 years can now be identified through the register held by the town council, the inadequacy of old records makes it impossible to trace the last resting place of everyone who died in Bourne before that and it is unlikely that the secret of exactly how many have been buried here over the centuries will ever be revealed.