Information about who is buried in the churchyard at St John’s, Hale, is coming to light and is being published online for the first time thanks to work by the Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale. Among those whose graves are now mapped and documented in a churchyard that dates back 175 years are John Henry Knight who built the first petroleum carriage for two people in England, and Bishop Sumner who lived in Farnham Castle and built 200 churches in the area.

However there are still some gaps in the information and the parish is asking for help to fill these.

The Reverend Alan Crawley, Joint Rector, says, “This has been a harder task than you might imagine, but it has reached a point where some information is now available to view on the web. It is far from complete, and may be inaccurate in places, but it is a work in progress and needs someone with time to volunteer to finish the task. Could you help build this up, or make it more accurate? If so, please get in touch.”

He continues, “The tools being used for the mapping of the churchyard are all free and public domain – if anyone would like to document another churchyard or cemetery then I would be happy to talk to them about it.”

You can contact Alan by email – revd.alan@badshotleaandhale.org or by calling him on 01252 820537.

The map can be found online or through their website – https://badshotleaandhale.org/ by choosing from the ‘funerals’ menu at the top.