St Mary's Churchyard Wall

The wall around the churchyard on the corner of St Mary’s Street and Chapel Road had developed a lean to the south along Chapel Road, and many of the piers and capping stones were damaged or have parts missing. The whole wall has now been repointed and missing elements have been replaced. It was built principally of Purbeck Stone, with piers of brick. 

The churchyard became a problem in the mid-19th century when it was having to accommodate some 500 new burials a year. It was closed for general burial in the mid-19th century after the new cemetery on the common was consecrated in May 1846, although members of families who owned a grave were still being buried in the 1880s. In 1846 a subscription had been raised to surround the churchyard with a wall topped with a railing. The winning design was by local architect Josiah George Poole, but the wall was not built until 1853.